Anne Siems
EXPO CHICAGO ‘23
Anne Siems’ recent works highlight one tattooed subject on patterned, colorful backgrounds that limit context and encourage reflection of the portraits’ subjects. At once fantastic and real, present and post-apocalyptic, her works delve into subconscious realms as if journeys into the unknown.
Shouldering, acrylic on wood panel, 36x36”, 2023
Heresy, acrylic on wood panel, 60x40”, 2023
Siems has been portraying tattooed figures for four years, inscribing bodies and faces with excerpts from poetry, mantras, imagery depicting rites of passage, and singular words to convey identity. Of these tattoos
Siems says, “they are unapologetic and brave, political, even if not in a direct way. They are markers of the world we live in and this time that on so many levels feels right on the edge in many ways.”
Stone Soup, gouache and graphite on paper, 40x38”, 2022
Embodied Max, watercolor and graphite on paper, 45x37.8”, 2022
Examining feminine psychology and identity through history, figures of young women are Siems’ primary, recurring focal point. While their faces and hands are fully present, their bodies are cloaked in transparent, intricately woven clothes or other-worldly shapes, rendered nearly invisible by patterns that overlay and obscure. Siems newest portraits depict women as almost supernatural in form, fashion and color. Untethered and unabashed, their fantastic features boldy rise from backdrops of abstracted, gestural veils.
Young Magician, acrylic on paper, 50x38”, 2022
Houndstooth, acrylic on paper, 50x38”, 2022
Anne Siems was born and raised in Berlin and lives and works in Seattle. She attended the University of the South in Tennessee under a Fulbright Scholarship and completed her MFA at the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin. Her work has been shown in a myriad of exhibitions in galleries and institutions in New York, Berlin, Chicago, Seattle, Portland, Boston, Vancouver, San Francisco and Los Angeles, among other cities. Her work can be found in collections spanning the globe, such has American Airlines, Seattle; The Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock; Boise Art Museum, Boise, ID; Harry Connick, Jr; Hallmark Collection, Kansas City, MO; Kemper Museum for Contemporary Art & Design, Kansas City, MO; Lucy Liu; Microsoft, Redmond WA; Nestle USA, Glendale, CA; Nordstrom Corporation Stores, Seattle; and Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, among others.