Home
HomeMuseumsArtistsArticlesShow GuideArt FairsGalleriesAuctions
Home
ArtworksAuctionsGalleriesFairsMagazineMore
ArtworksAuctionsGalleriesFairsMagazineArtistsShowsMuseums

Artsy for Galleries
Log inSign up
Exhibition view at Galerie Mitterrand, 2014. Copyright Rachel Feinstein, Courtesy Galerie Mitterrand, Photo Rebecca Fanuele.
Exhibition view at Galerie Mitterrand, 2014. Copyright Rachel Feinstein, Courtesy Galerie Mitterrand, Photo Rebecca Fanuele.
Exhibition view at Galerie Mitterrand, 2014. Copyright Rachel Feinstein, Courtesy Galerie Mitterrand, Photo Rebecca Fanuele.
Exhibition view at Galerie Mitterrand, 2014. Copyright Rachel Feinstein, Courtesy Galerie Mitterrand, Photo Rebecca Fanuele.
Exhibition view at Galerie Mitterrand, 2014. Copyright Rachel Feinstein, Courtesy Galerie Mitterrand, Photo Rebecca Fanuele.
Exhibition view at Galerie Mitterrand, 2014. Copyright Rachel Feinstein, Courtesy Galerie Mitterrand, Photo Rebecca Fanuele.
•
•
•

Rachel Feinstein

The Galerie Mitterrand is delighted to announce the first solo exhibition, in Paris, of American artist, Rachel Feinstein. This event provides an opportunity to discover an ensemble of works representative of the recent production of this important artist on the current New York
Galerie Mitterrand
Nov 22nd, 2014 – Jan 24th, 2015
Paris, 79, rue du TempleMap
, 'Cemetery Angel Zurich,' 2012, Galerie Mitterrand

Rachel Feinstein

Cemetery Angel Zurich, 2012

Galerie Mitterrand

Contact Gallery
, 'An English Manor House ,' 2014, Galerie Mitterrand

Rachel Feinstein

An English Manor House , 2014

Galerie Mitterrand

Contact Gallery
, 'Ruins ,' 2014, Galerie Mitterrand

Rachel Feinstein

Ruins , 2014

Galerie Mitterrand

Contact Gallery
, 'Circus Horse ,' 2014, Galerie Mitterrand

Rachel Feinstein

Circus Horse , 2014

Galerie Mitterrand

Contact Gallery
, 'Stage Set,' 2014, Galerie Mitterrand

Rachel Feinstein

Stage Set, 2014

Galerie Mitterrand

Contact Gallery
, 'A Ballet pair,' 2014, Galerie Mitterrand

Rachel Feinstein

A Ballet pair, 2014

Galerie Mitterrand

Contact Gallery
, 'The Czech Castle ,' 2014, Galerie Mitterrand

Rachel Feinstein

The Czech Castle , 2014

Galerie Mitterrand

Contact Gallery

Press Release

Since the early 2000s, Rachel Feinstein has primarily developed a sculptural work which nevertheless, leaves an important place for painting and drawing. To create her works, mostly figurative, Rachel Feinstein constantly draws upon the iconography of European art and culture from the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, her main references being the baroque and rococo styles. However, her work may be said to overplay the search for beauty, refinement and sophistication, characteristic of these periods. This deliberate emphasis betrays a critical dimension that is expressed through an intentionally caricatural or parodic style. For example, the royal horses (Wagenburg, 2001), the angels (Army of God, 2008) or biblical scenes (Crucifixion, 2003) create works that combine the grandeur and prestige of European history with the decadence and decline of the aristocracy and royalism. The artist's sumptuous paintings on mirrors (Rhoda, Marie, Eva, 2005) depict exaggeratedly unattractive women or the old-fashioned castles of the former European courts (Kasteel de Haar, 2010, Castle Pernstejn, 2012), subverted or misappropriated by the kitsch aesthetics of a Cinderella's castle. Rachel Feinstein's plaster or flat propped sculptures also refer to the notion of artificiality. They often resemble objects or decorative environments (The Sorbet Room, 2001; Satinstein, 2002), or decorative elements (from film or theatre) in which we can see the hidden meaning and understand the devices. All of her works reveal the artist's interest in the fantastical aesthetics of Hollywood fairy tales, halfway between Walt Disney and Sofia Coppola's Marie-Antoinette. Rachel Feinstein's work can be seen as a distortion of the legacy of European monarchies by American popular culture, a historical reinterpretation or indeed, a combination of different eras which she explains as follows: "Rococo to Americans is Liberace, but it's also Disney World, it's "Sleeping Beauty" this Grimms' fairy tale, Black Forest aspect of stuff".

For her exhibition at the Galerie Mitterrand, Rachel Feinstein presents a sculpture of a buckled large black carriage called Puritan's Delight (2008), inspired by the Austrian royal carriages of the nineteenth century. This work with its clean lines creates a dramatic atmosphere which evokes the drawings of cemetery angels in Zurich and Manchester (pastel drawings from 2012). This lugubrious mise en scène includes an aqua-resin sculpture, painted white, entitled The Hun Girl (2014). Presented for the first time in the Schwartz Gallery of the Metropolitan Opera in New York, this piece is an imaginary portrait of the character Kontchakovna, a key figure of the opera Prince Igor by Alexander Borodin.

Rachel Feinstein was born in 1971 in Arizona (USA). She lives and works in New York. Her work has been the subject of several solo shows, including her first exhibition in France at the Consortium Art Centre in 2006 (Tropical Rodeo), the exhibition The Snow Queen at the Lever House Art Collection in New York in 2011, or more recently Folly (2014) at Madison Square Park, where she presented several monumental sculptures.

Follow Artists In This Show

Rachel Feinstein
HomeMuseumsArtistsFairsShowsAuctionsGalleriesMagazine
Sign upLog in
About ArtsyTerms of UsePrivacy Policy

Collecting

Buying from Galleries FAQBuying from Auctions FAQConsign with ArtsyArtsy for Professional Buyers

Education

EducationThe Art Genome Project

About Artsy

AboutBlogJobsOpen SourcePress

Partnering with Artsy

Artsy for GalleriesArtsy for MuseumsArtsy for Auctions

General questions & feedback?

Contact ArtsySend us feedback
© 2018 ArtsyTerms of UsePrivacy PolicySecurity
Follow Artsy on Twitter Follow Artsy on FacebookFollow Artsy on Snapchat Follow Artsy on Instagram