Palm Springs Perspective II 2021

Carrie Graber’s painting, Palm Springs Perspective II, appears to be made with oils, the color palette is so bright and saturated. It’s like a dream of California cool, filtered through the lens of artifice and a bit of satire. The painting is slick, and hyper-real, but there’s also something about it that feels very flat and dead-pan. The surface is so smooth, it’s hard to tell what kind of tools were used, maybe an airbrush, or maybe just a really fine brush and a lot of blending. There is something eerie about the surface: the sheen makes it feel as though there is a layer of glass between you and the scene. There are so many painters that come to mind with this piece; Hockney, obviously, but also Lisa Yuskavage in the way that the figure is poised and glamorous, while there is a sense of something a little more sinister underneath the surface. Art is always an ongoing conversation, and Graber brings something new to the table.