Ariel Freiberg: Unquenchable Thirst

Ariel Freiberg’s recent work confronts idealized representations of femininity and female identity. In her lush and sensuous canvases, Freiberg depicts fragments of women’s faces that appear to blend into or emerge out of abstractly painted veils. Through shards or tears of paint emerge different facial expressions—such as a flash of a parted lip or a slice of an alluring glance—that become signifiers of constructed feminine beauty. Freiberg’s paintings hesitate, creating tension between that which is depicted and what remains unseen.