ATTENTION SEEKING is now on view at @_eragallery until october 29. thank you patrizia and @emmahmoriconi for making it all happen! Featuring curatorial text by @kiara_cristina: “For artist Audrey Lyall, art and fashion are both a question and a statement. Within her mixed media paintings, Lyall constructs an imagined world where her femme characters of color mirror the downfalls of contemporary beauty standards and at the same time highlight how the act of “dressing up” can lift one’s spirit. In this realm of glitz and glamour, the figures dress as extravagant as they’d like and capture the public’s attention as soon as they leave their doorstep. Like a local celebrity on the block where everyone knows their name. Their style and essence is unforgettable. They are Attention Seeking. Audrey Lyall grew up in Corte Madera, a suburb outside of San Francisco, California. She first learned how to draw the figure in elementary school, at a fashion illustration class. From then on, she continued her fashion studies in academia up until college. Halfway through reaching towards her BFA at the Pratt Institute, she decided to switch majors to Critical and Visual Studies where she expanded into using different mediums and began making paintings. Lyall approaches the canvas like a fashion designer. Her characters are drawn as the classic 9 head figure, which creates a tall slim elongated body form. She uses tracing paper, cuts the outlines, and applies it on the canvas. This is reminiscent of the pattern making process in garment making. She creates silhouettes, cuts and sews, collages, drapes, and assembles garments with aesthetics, composition, and color palette in mind. This experimental artistic process results in intricately layered paintings. Her materials are sourced from her closet, the streets of NYC, and even her local beauty supply store. Her mediums can range from: bobby pins acrylic paint watercolor paper glass beads press on nails cowrie shells faux eyelashes lace front wigs oil pastels found clothing elastic hair bands attitude confidence sparkle the limelight and spirit (essay cont’d in comment section below)