Ann Gale is a figure painter whose penetrating, psychological portraiture explores the psychology and sexuality of both artist and subject. Like those artists she cites as influences, Antonio López Garcia and Lucian Freud, and particularly, the sculptor, Alberto Giacommeti, Gale approaches the figure as an opportunity to discover and undress the human psyche.
According to critic Michael Duncan, "Gale finds in all her subjects a center of gravity, a realm beyond "thingness" where we can see and feel the fathomless presence of existence." This deconstruction of objective reality is reminiscent of the paintings of Cézanne. By avoiding the appearance of visual surety, Gale's paintings, like Cézanne's, are imbued with a deep skepticism regarding reality's true nature and, in Gale's case, reveal the discomfitingly intimate relationship between model and artist.
Gale's work process, complex and rigorous, is intrinsic to her goal. She works slowly, drawing and painting directly from the model over a period of many weeks or months. Over time, the emotional and physical demands of maintaining such close, intimate contact with her subject leads to a dematerialization and fragmentation of the painted figure. This breakdown is expressed visually through Gale's use of short, fragmented brushstrokes that merge the figure with the ground.
Gale received her BFA from Rhode Island College, Providence, RI, and her MFA from Yale University, New Haven, CT. A professor at the University of Washington School of Art in Seattle, Gale has been the recipient of numerous grants, including a 2007 Guggenheim Fellowship, an Artist Trust Grant/GAP Award (2003), a WESTAF/ National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship (1996), and an Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant (1997). She currently lives and works in Seattle, Washington.
