Showgirls

SHOWGIRLS Acrylic on Canvas | 42" × 58" | 2019

The show hasn't started yet. This part is just for them.

Showgirls catches the backstage moment — the in-between, the not-yet, the space that exists before the curtain rises and the performance begins. Two figures occupy the wings: one centre, resplendent in a gold sequined corset and pink feather boa that trails across the floor with the casual extravagance of something that cost a great deal and knows it; the other to the right, quieter, waiting, her pale costume and downcast eyes suggesting a different relationship with what is about to happen.

The backstage world around them is all purple and violet and the particular darkness of spaces that exist to be unseen — broken by slashes of yellow, pink and blue that arrive with the cheerful irreverence of a painter who understands that even the shadows backstage are glamorous if you look at them properly. A coil of black cable in the lower left — the most unglamorous object imaginable — sits with complete comfort in the composition, the infrastructure of spectacle rendered with the same attention as the sequins and the feathers.

The feathers are the painting. Pink, extravagant, trailing — painted with a loose, almost impressionistic touch that gives them the quality of something between plumage and paint, between costume and pure colour. They pool on the floor and disappear into the lower canvas as if the painting itself is absorbing them.

Showgirls is a painting about the private self that exists behind the public performance — a theme that runs through this body of work like a thread, from Bonnie Jean on her sofa to Marilyn reclined to these two figures in the wings, each one caught in the moment before the mask goes on. That moment, always, is the most interesting one.

📦 Shipping & Details

• 42" × 58" original acrylic on canvas
• Signed and dated 2019
• Please contact us to discuss shipping options
• Certificate of authenticity included

One original. No reproductions. The show hasn't started. This part is just for them.