Dinora Justice at Marc Straus Gallery in New York
Dinora Justice is exhibiting paintings at Marc Straus Gallery in New York city in the show titled “We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live”, which features seven artists of diverse backgrounds – Julie Buffalohead, Ambreen Butt, Angela Fraleigh, Dinorá Justice, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Orkideh Torabi & Marie Watt. The show is inspired by Joan Didion’s book of the same name.
In her collection of essays Didion explores the power of narrative and its role in shaping our understanding of reality; she examines how stories, both personal and cultural, help us make sense of our lives and cope with chaos. Reflecting on subjects such as personal identity, the nature of reality, and the interplay between memory and storytelling, Didion searches for insight into how we construct meaning and navigate the complexities of existence.
Revisiting Western art history, Dinorá Justice’s series of works “after” renowned nineteenth century European male artists examines the placement of women in traditional landscapes across the canon. For example, Portrait 79, after Manet’s ‘Olympia’ draws upon the artist’s long-standing interest in ecofeminism, which critically considers the ways in which femininity and the natural world have often been linguistically and culturally conjoined. She uses verdant greenery, colorful Brazilian fabric designs, and hand-marbled canvases to remix these quintessential art historical forms. Ultimately, Justice’s work questions the power relationships between artists, their subjects, and the wider world as stand-ins for our own relationships with gender and nature.
