Emerging Artist Showcase: Painter Megan Van Groll (PHOTOS)

WHO: Hawaiian born painter Megan Van Groll. Has been part of exhibitions in Italy and throughout the state of Texas. Of her repertoire and style, Van Groll says she's "fascinated by the obsessive, erotic, and somewhat dark role of food in the female consciousness." Her latest series, Bakery Brawl, utilizes "a grainy found image of two prostitutes at the beginning of an altercation," and places them in front of a complex, brightly lit, bold bakery scene. Food, sensuality, and obsessive behavior are all familiar in her work.

Despite being such an everyday and seemingly passive part of our lives, food -- particularly comfort or 'guilty pleasure' food -- is a loaded cultural symbol, embodying both physical and emotional nourishment as well as guilt and shame. This love/hate, crave/fear, indulgence/abstinence dichotomy parallels and flirts with the role of sexuality, highlighting the disconnect between the raw, corporeal aspects of our humanity and Western culture's expectations of gender roles and performance.

WHERE TO BUY PRINTS: Van Groll has recently implemented an opportunity to purchase her prints via her website.

• • • • • • Bakery Brawl oil on canvas, 36"x48", 2010. Fine art giclee prints available - visit www.meganvangroll.com for more information.

Comments

[tobynsaunders]

02:34 PM on 09/12/2010

I used to think art was intrinsically great, but most of it is wasteful... some art does great things, but for the most part it's just entertainment... it's just superficial escapism for selfish Westerners.

This artist is clearly selling sex appeal under the guise of 'high' art... maybe it will motivate some people to do great things, & that's great, but surely for the most part it's just shallow entertainment. Art is too selfish.

[katiek2o]

12:08 AM on 09/12/2010

love it.. funny stuff

[CristineN]

02:13 PM on 09/10/2010

very nice work...

[Me atlast]

10:00 AM on 09/10/2010

Awesome work.....

[Kiz boy]

10:18 AM on 09/09/2010

There's intention and there's execution. If the two don't meet, the work suffers.

[mojoday]

09:33 AM on 09/09/2010

Great work from a young artist! I love the combination of food and sexuality.

[My Good Babushka]

08:39 AM on 09/09/2010

I think the subject matter is not that interesting or revealing, and the painting is not very good, either. Very flat.

[My Good Babushka]

08:48 AM on 09/09/2010

The close ups on her website look a lot better. You can really see the contrasts and brush strokes.

[tobynsaunders]

02:37 PM on 09/12/2010

I know what you mean: the technical rendering isn't very breath taking, & even if it was, then, "so what?"...Van Groll is selling her naked body like a stripper does; hey, that's lovely. Guys love naked women's body like nothing else, but, "give me a break" is the saying I'm looking for.

Artists get rich like pop stars get rich: they tend not to add value to lives, but rather, entertain people who could otherwise be doing good things. Hell, maybe commenting on here is wasteful... I'm trying to raise consciousness.

[Jim-Heartwheel]

06:12 AM on 09/09/2010

Great gift for picking the most heightened scene in a narrative.
There's a lot of story in each work.
Reminds me of Greek sculpture -the Discus Thrower
the sculptor chose the exact moment before the disk was thrown.
The build-up of energy is conveyed.
Her work conveys equally compelling moments of action.
Nicely rendered too.

[Joe Sherman]

01:45 PM on 09/08/2010

This is great stuff. She's very talented. I noticed that the colors are very washed out here compared to on her website, however.