3/6: LIFE IN THE AVIARY // new work by KYLA ZOE RAFERT

LIFE IN THE AVIARY
new works by KYLA ZOE RAFERT
March 6-7, 2011

Opening Reception: Sunday, March 6, 4-8
Open Hours: Monday, March 7, noon-4

ACRE Projects
1913 W 17th Street

LIFE IN THE AVIARY: In Kyla Zoe Rafert’s obsessively detailed works on paper, truth has been eerily bent to perfection. Set within a meticulously designed world of vanity, beauty, intense color and abundant pattern, recent works evoke a carefully crafted stage rather than the happenstance of real life. Echoing fairy tales, Dutch genre paintings of the 17th century, and overly sentimental 19th century literature, Rafert’s paintings illustrate adolescent girls and young women in scenes that play on Romantic notions such as the peril of curiosity, the potency of beauty, and the inevitable fall of innocence. Despite their childlike references, however, these works embody the prophetic perspective of an adult looking backward to an overly romanticized, fictive past. As an adult, one can look longingly at this world of innocence, and whether it existed or not, they have always fallen from it: they have traded their naiveté for the role of a diviner.

KYLA ZOE RAFERT was born and raised in Newark, Delaware and received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2002, and completed her Master of Fine Arts in the Printmaking Area at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 2009.  She has participated in numerous juried exhibitions and artists’ residencies nationally. In addition to her residency at ACRE (Artists’ Cooperative Residency and Exhibitions), Rafert has attended artists’ residencies at The Virginia Center for Creative Arts, The Vermont Studio Center, the New York Mills Arts Retreat, and Women’s Studio Workshop. She currently lives and works in Madison, WI.

More information about Kyla Zoe Rafert can be found at www.kyla-zoe.com.