E. Lombardo

Lives and works in Brooklyn, NY

Artist statement

I am a queer artist searching for signs of hope and progress in our society. Like a detective I comb through images, collecting and presenting evidence to expose the systems of power that subjugate us. My work is best described as a mix of queer “magical thinking,” scathing social analysis, and pure romance. I am a representational artist working in printmaking, drawing and painting. The work has two main trajectories. The first employs traditional methods of printmaking to create timeless works of social critique. My technical focus on copperplate etching has opened a portal between the past and present. I appropriate the works of “old masters,” such as Goya and Raimondi, but insert contemporary narratives. The familiar compositions, intimate scale and delicately etched lines draw the viewer into a narrative culled from centuries of heteronormative art history. Instead, the viewer is met with images of present-day social injustice and queer love. Ultimately I appropriate historically iconic images to amplify my voice as a queer artist. These are my acts of defiance. The second trajectory employs large-scale paintings of film stills culled from television, movies, and cartoons. Images taken from 70’s, 80’s and 90’s mainstream media, when there were only a few networks. During these decades we collectively consumed the same narratives. These American myths further entrenched us in repetitive patterns of binary, destructive stories that were especially harmful to women. The...

Artwork