Albertz Benda opens exhibition of works by Los Angeles-based painter Kelly Reemtsen
(Artdaily.org)

Expanding upon her iconic motif of bright feminine portraits with disquieting undertones, Los Angeles-based painter Kelly Reemtsen examines the concept of ‘value’ – how is it assigned, and how can existing frameworks for gauging value be challenged? The women in Reemtsen’s paintings wear festive cocktail dresses that are odds with the utilitarian objects in their hands, such as carpitem equipment or power tools. The works are a celebration of high femme style and subverted expectations. Value, a central piece in the exhibition, consists of six panels depicting a woman either fading or coming into focus. The composition manipulates color value and chroma to either reinforce or minimize the presence of the subject, relative to how the viewer approaches the work. Inspired in part by what the artist has identified as a “a new type of revolution