* All images used with permission. Please do not distribute without first contacting the artist.
Ananda Balingit-LeFils investigates in her portraiture her relationships to close friends and family.
But while she has a personal and intimate connection with her subjects, they are consciously depicted in a static pose and formal setting. The clothing, patterns and props are chosen as a biographical exploration of the subject and also of her own aesthetic.
Balingit-LeFils is most inspired by American itinerant painters of the 18th and 19th centuries. She admires what she describes as tender awkwardness exemplified in these paintings.
The patterned surfaces allude to the flatness of the folk paintings as well as textile crafts. While each element is chosen from a particular time period, she mixes eras in an effort to cast off innate nostolgia.