Lorraine Masters
Lorraine Masters graduated with a B.A. (hons) in Fine Art from the Limerick School of Art and Design. She has shown in group exhibitions such as The End is the Beginning, curated by Louise Marlborough in the Market Studios, Dublin; Mirror Mirror – Beauty and Perception, in 2020 Gallery, Cork and AfterImage, curated by Mary Conlon, in Ormston House, Limerick. Masters has just finished up her first solo show Naked Truths, curated by Niamh Brown in the Atrium Gallery, The Backstage Theatre and Centre for the Arts, Longford. Her artwork features on the cover of Lorne Patterson’s novella Witch, published by Dark Hall Press in 2012.
Masters has featured in a Graduate Profile in Midlands Art & Culture Magazine in 2013 and in an Artist Profile in the Longford Leader in 2013. Her work was featured in the Exit Limerick Graduate reviews in conjunction with eva International 2012. She also received the Limerick Art Society Award for Excellence Shown in the 2012 LSAD Graduate Show and has work in the Hunt Museum Permanent Collection (group piece). Masters is also a Senior Gallery Assistant in Ormston House in Limerick.
Masters’ work focuses on female body image in contemporary society. The rise of Photoshop and other editing techniques has inspired a generation of self awareness. Essentially, the media spends so much time taking apart the female form, that it is difficult for us not to do so. The work is about entering a self destructive mode. Psychological state can skew vision and actually change what we see. We fight a constant battle between the real and the imagined, the corporeal and the ultimate aesthetic. Our vision of the human form has become skewed. And with the means of changing our proportions becoming more and more accessible who’s to say where we’ll end up?
The work, at surface level, is drawing on the history of the female nude, especially in regard to the artistic canon. The difference is, throughout history the male has painted the female, in this circumstance the female is painting herself. The work is no longer the about male gaze but about one’s own gaze – the historical male objectivity versus the contemporary female subjectivity. The intention of the work is to invite discourse around the theme of perception and female body image. The work is open to viewer interpretation and invites the opportunity to hold discussions about the themes at hand in conjunction with the exhibition. .
