Kate Bancroft

Lives and works in Brooklyn, NY, USA

Artist statement

Kate Bancroft creates paintings and sculptures of fragmented self-portraits in food, cosmetics and other objects that act as lenses, portals, mirrors and other psychological metaphors. Juxtaposing various symbolic objects, she creates specific narratives within each painting. Still life painting has historically been a genre that is most inclusive to women and in Bancroft's work, it as a symbol of feminist resistance. She combines chiaroscuro lighting and paint application reminiscent of Dutch Golden Age Still Life painting with bright Pop Art colors, using diverse styles of paint application including loose, expressionistic strokes, areas of impasto, thin staining, scratching, and other visceral painterly gestures. Notions of wholesomeness, glamour, and other promises of Capitalism are painted with a sense of humor and visible human touch. Bancroft paints from reference images that she creates digitally, combining drawings, personal photography of staged objects and found images.

Artwork