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Rachel Feinstein

Secrets

January 11–February 17, 2018
Beverly Hills

Installation video Play Button

Installation video

Installation view Artwork © Rachel Feinstein. Photo: Jeff McLane

Installation view

Artwork © Rachel Feinstein. Photo: Jeff McLane

Installation view Artwork © Rachel Feinstein. Photo: Jeff McLane

Installation view

Artwork © Rachel Feinstein. Photo: Jeff McLane

Installation view Artwork © Rachel Feinstein. Photo: Jeff McLane

Installation view

Artwork © Rachel Feinstein. Photo: Jeff McLane

Installation view Artwork © Rachel Feinstein. Photo: Jeff McLane

Installation view

Artwork © Rachel Feinstein. Photo: Jeff McLane

Installation view Artwork © Rachel Feinstein. Photo: Jeff McLane

Installation view

Artwork © Rachel Feinstein. Photo: Jeff McLane

Installation view Artwork © Rachel Feinstein. Photo: Jeff McLane

Installation view

Artwork © Rachel Feinstein. Photo: Jeff McLane

Installation view Artwork © Rachel Feinstein. Photo: Jeff McLane

Installation view

Artwork © Rachel Feinstein. Photo: Jeff McLane

Installation view Artwork © Rachel Feinstein. Photo: Jeff McLane

Installation view

Artwork © Rachel Feinstein. Photo: Jeff McLane

Works Exhibited

Rachel Feinstein, Bandleader, 2018 Hand-applied colored resin over foam with wood base, 76 × 40 × 30 inches (193 × 101.6 × 76.2 cm)© Rachel Feinstein. Photo: Jeff McLane

Rachel Feinstein, Bandleader, 2018

Hand-applied colored resin over foam with wood base, 76 × 40 × 30 inches (193 × 101.6 × 76.2 cm)
© Rachel Feinstein. Photo: Jeff McLane

Rachel Feinstein, Feathers, 2018 Hand-applied colored resin over foam with wooden base, 77 × 37 ½ × 29 ½ inches (195.6 × 95.3 × 74.9 cm)© Rachel Feinstein. Photo: Jeff McLane

Rachel Feinstein, Feathers, 2018

Hand-applied colored resin over foam with wooden base, 77 × 37 ½ × 29 ½ inches (195.6 × 95.3 × 74.9 cm)
© Rachel Feinstein. Photo: Jeff McLane

Rachel Feinstein, Scènes de Jardins, 2018 Oil and enamel on mirror, 48 × 106 inches (121.9 × 269.2 cm)© Rachel Feinstein. Photo: Jeff McLane

Rachel Feinstein, Scènes de Jardins, 2018

Oil and enamel on mirror, 48 × 106 inches (121.9 × 269.2 cm)
© Rachel Feinstein. Photo: Jeff McLane

Rachel Feinstein, Bradbury, 2018 Oil and enamel on mirror, 42 × 54 inches (106.7 × 137.2 cm)© Rachel Feinstein. Photo: Jeff McLane

Rachel Feinstein, Bradbury, 2018

Oil and enamel on mirror, 42 × 54 inches (106.7 × 137.2 cm)
© Rachel Feinstein. Photo: Jeff McLane

Rachel Feinstein, Neutra Place, 2018 Oil and enamel on mirror, 25 × 32 inches (63.5 × 81.3 cm)© Rachel Feinstein. Photo: Jeff McLane

Rachel Feinstein, Neutra Place, 2018

Oil and enamel on mirror, 25 × 32 inches (63.5 × 81.3 cm)
© Rachel Feinstein. Photo: Jeff McLane

About

I’ve always been interested in portraying some kind of fantasy, then showing that it’s completely constructed. There are always dark messages hidden behind beauty, and the act of sculpting is about listening to that inner voice that warns you about something lurking beneath the surface.
—Rachel Feinstein

Gagosian is pleased to present Secrets, an exhibition of new work by Rachel Feinstein. This is Feinstein’s first solo exhibition in Los Angeles.

In richly detailed sculptures and multipart installations, Feinstein considers the sumptuous materiality of historical European luxury, updating its refined surfaces and edges with a gritty and approximate excess. Borrowing freely from Baroque and Rococo sculpture, religious iconography, Romantic landscapes, and mainstream media, she explores issues of taste and desire, synthesizing visual and societal opposites such as romance and pornography, elegance and kitsch, the marvelous and the utterly banal.

Secrets consists of new sculptures, wallpaper, and paintings in which Feinstein cannibalizes notions of beauty, belief, and spectacle to reveal perfection as a form of burlesque. The Secrets is a series of eight large-scale sculptures that reflects on the Victoria’s Secret phenomenon, with its trademark “Angels” in their jaw-dropping lingerie costumes—dressed as butterflies, firebirds, baby dolls, snow queens, and more—strutting their stuff at the brand’s annual fashion extravaganza that is broadcast to millions of ogling fans worldwide. Feinstein’s figures have been scaled up in hard foam from small clay maquettes, then individual hues applied piece by piece in hand-colored epoxy resins.

Read more

News

Rachel Feinstein: Secrets (Beverly Hills: Gagosian, 2019)

Online Reading

Rachel Feinstein
Secrets

Rachel Feinstein: Secrets is available for online reading from July 19 through August 17 as part of the From the Library series. Secrets documents Feinstein’s 2018 exhibition at Gagosian, Beverly Hills, which included a series of oversize, flamboyantly colored sculptures of women inspired by the Victoria’s Secret “Angels,” as well as mirror paintings, majolica sculptures, and a panoramic wallpaper that allude to both the European decorative arts and West Coast modernist luxury. A sculptural object in its own right, the book unites these distinct bodies of work—along with an essay by curator Pamela Golbin and a conversation between Feinstein and designer Tom Ford—within a single volume bound in a Z-fold cover, embodying the dichotomies present in the artist’s work.

Rachel Feinstein: Secrets (Beverly Hills: Gagosian, 2019)

Rachel Feinstein: Secrets (New York: Gagosian, 2019)

Book Signing

Rachel Feinstein
Secrets

Monday, June 3, 2019, 5:30–6:30pm
Gagosian Shop, New York

Rachel Feinstein will be signing copies of her new book, Secrets, at the Gagosian Shop in New York. Secrets documents Feinstein’s 2018 exhibition at Gagosian, Beverly Hills, which included a series of oversize, flamboyantly colored sculptures of women inspired by the Victoria’s Secret “Angels,” as well as mirror paintings, majolica sculptures, and a panoramic wallpaper that allude to both the European decorative arts and West Coast modernist luxury. A sculptural object in its own right, the book unites these distinct bodies of work—along with an essay by curator Pamela Golbin and a conversation between Feinstein and designer Tom Ford—within a single Z-fold cover, which features a cutout doorway that embodies the dichotomies present in the artist’s work. To attend the free event, RSVP to feinsteinrsvp@gagosian.com.

Download the full press release (PDF)

Rachel Feinstein: Secrets (New York: Gagosian, 2019)