elina Trieff creates oil worlds where theatricality is reality. Her figures’ smooth faces are unscathed by expression, contrasting modernity’s obsession with the film and television close-up. Instead, Trieff’s gestures speak emotional and historical volumes. One single, solemn gesticulation expresses profound and acutely identifiable feeling, amplified in its association with drama, where bodily expression dominates. Recognizably theatrical costuming as well as Renaissance-reminiscent gold leaf use and compositional organization pronounce the pathos innate t¥ each work. Utilizing viewers’ cultural associations, Trieff makes Figurative Expressionist history while she explores it.

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