Gunslinger 

Curator: Gunslinger, an oil painting by Danny Galieote. It's a striking portrait. Editor: Well, my immediate reaction is one of amusement mixed with a bit of unease. It's kitschy, a femme fatale right out of a dime novel, all smoky guns and a come-hither stare. Curator: Right, the artist clearly references the Western genre, and does so with some intriguing visual strategies. There's the hyper-feminized character with an aggressive pose. But let’s think about the labour of portraiture itself here. Galieote manipulates our ideas about feminine gender roles using popular culture, what's fascinating is the contemporary audience. Editor: The artist's choice to work in oil grants it a certain… presence. And then there's the palette, which oscillates from desaturated greens to warmer oranges, setting off the figure as the focal point, especially due to that striking red hat. The lines that build up the clouds in the background, these really enhance that dynamism, a feeling of tension which speaks volumes! Curator: Exactly. He toys with familiar Western tropes but through the act of staging such a visual and the choice of media and artistic style, questions ideas around popular feminine archetypes. Editor: Looking closely at the woman’s clothes—that decorative dress shirt paired with a voluminous western-style dress seems less of a functional garment and more like a conscious costuming. Also note how he models with color to give each plane depth while defining his character’s attributes. Curator: Yes. He creates a scene that evokes both an action shot, like you mentioned, and also what looks to me almost like historical revisionism in painting as an object itself. This work really pushes boundaries between traditional craft, commercial production, and visual arts by creating it in an allegorical manner. Editor: What a wonderful demonstration in brushwork; looking closely one can clearly see its physical texture! Considering the tonality and composition with fresh eyes truly gives insight into not only the process, but in this piece the content as well. Curator: Agreed. There are no ends, but as beginnings, to everything involving painting objects such as these. It asks questions we often have trouble articulating. Editor: It seems we found fresh insight just from giving "Gunslinger" a bit more consideration!