Grand Selfie

Savannah wears a Rococo dress, displayed in its full glory as she rises from a tufted leather sofa and purses her lips like a fashion model to take a selfie in front of a classical marble vase on a pedestal. Her confidence and self-importance seem intensely ephemeral in sharp contrast to the looming distortion and chaos represented by the background’s colorful parallel lines, like a glitch in a computer monitor about to go out. Like other paintings in this collection, this work grapples with the temporary, illusory joy so emblematic of our times. The grandiosity of momentarily seeing yourself through the eyes of your peers inevitably feels both theatrical and tragic.