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Gallery 454 Presents New Work by Natalie Wohlstadter

“A tall column of leaves and flowers shaped into a dress, a bodice and tulip skirt rendered with coils of industrial pipe, multiple teddy bear pelts sewn into a gown. Natalie Wohlstadter’s work, on exhibit at through January 3rd, 2011 at Gallery 454, draws its main influence from the theaterical realm of fashion. Her work is concerned with transformation, fantasy, and feminine power; Natalie cites designer Alexander McQueen, artist Nick Cave, and the Arnham Mode Biennale as some of her inspirations. Repetition and fecundity emerge as the work’s visual themes—row after row of corrugated black pipe coil into a female form and trail out behind in a train—as do the disturbing and delightful conflations of the Surreal. But the artist seeks to invoke goddesses, not monsters; Natalie remarks, “Costume can bring out a different set of characteristics in its wearer, a new set of powers.” Her latest work is grounded in research into the history and uses of the mask. Each dress is meticulously handsewn.

     Natalie’s paintings follow similar themes. A female figure stands serenely while birds and spiders cover her arms; a woman lays half prone in water while butterflies alight on her flesh. The compositions draw in a history of female iconography, and also step ever so slightly into the territory of the grotesque. She describes her paintings as allegories of the self. Again, the artist’s main concern is transformation and beauty.

    Interested in theatrical design, and crossing the line between fashion and art, Natalie Wohlstadter is an emerging artist who graduated from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2011.

-Anne Lesley Selcer

Writing by Anne Lesley Selcer has recently appeared in Fillip, Arcade, Made Magazine, The Stranger, and Northwest Edge III: The End of Reality anthology. She has contributed to catalogues for the Belkin, the Or and Artspeak galleries and for a bookwork forthcoming by artist Sydney Vermont.

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