Featured Printmaker:

Kyla Zoe Rafert

May 10 July 5 Brumfields Gallery

In the second installment of the Featured Printmaker series, Brumfields Gallery brings in Kyla Zoe Rafert. This printmaking showcase will coincide with our exhibition of paintings and ceramics by Jacquline Hurlbert, both opening on May 10th. Rafert is a Delaware based artist. The works have a sense of fairy tale, combined with references to 18th century portraiture. The artists carefully staged scenes demonstrate her eye for unexpected color and complex patterns. Rafert tends to focus on scenes illustrating women and young girls. The characters, while outwardly exploring themes reminiscent of childhood and naievete, are meant to represent more mature themes. The artist means for these women to embody the perspective of a nostalgic adult, fictionalizing an overly romanticized past. She describes these scenes as exploring romantic notions such as the peril of curiousity, the potency of beauty, and the inevitable fall of innocence. Adults are awarded with the gift of fantasy, glossing over an innocent childhood that may or may not have existed.

In these confined tableaus, the artist explores the idea of perfectionism, largely inspired by photographs and paintings from the Victoria era. These women are rigid and unchanging in each piece, trapped in a seemingly perfect and beautiful world of color and pattern. We, the audience, are voyeurs of these visually busy, textured, yet static scenes. The artist uses life models, posing each scene and creating detailed drawings. She then transitions these sketches into meticulously fashioned etchings and paintings. A selection of Kyla Zoe Raferts mixed media paintings will feature later in Brumfield Gallerys program. Kyla Zoe Rafert earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Printmaking from the Rhode Island School of Design and later her Masters of Fine Arts in Printmaking from the University of Wisconson. Her awards include a grant from the Vermont Studio Center, a Fellowship with the Womens Studio Workshop in New York, and a Residency at the ACRE (Artists Cooperative Residency and Exhibitions) in Chicago. She has shown extensively along the East Coast and Midwest, including Chicago, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. Brumfields Gallery new Featured Printmaker program runs alongside its main gallery program. This show will coincide with the gallerys exhibition of ceramics and painting by Jacquline Hurlbert. The two shows will open on Saturday, May 10 from 7 9 p.m. at Brumfields Gallery. The event will be open to the public and feature a no-host bar provided by 13th Street Pub & Grill. For more information, please contact the gallery at (208) 333 0309 or gallery@brumfieldllc.com.

Brumfields Gallery 1513 N 13th Street Boise, ID 83702 www.brumfieldllc.com