Stefanie Mayrhofer's paintngs are vivid, evocative translations of portraits pulled from the pages of magazines, photographs and memory. Employing a traditional gesso ground and oil paint mediums on wood panels Mayrhofer embraces her loyalty to color and the expressive gestural mark to search the limits and possibilities of two dimensional pictures. The often emotionally charged frozen moments that she chooses become a map that guides an exploration of form and the expressive human condition.
Born in Salzburg, Austria and influenced by the likes of painters Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele, Mayrhofer is seduced by the simple and complex nuances within the act of manipulating paint and color. As she deconstructs her subjects through sincere interpretation and the physicality of painitng she pushes and challenges their potential cliches. While faces and bodies take form it becomes clear that the subjects, more importantly, expose a personal quest for a moment illustrative of not only their reference but Mayrhofer's own reliance on passion, intensity and emotional truth... or her mere faith in these and the power of paint to perform this feat.
Jacqueline Skaggs
(writer/artist)
© 2010 Stefanie Mayrhofer