Ophelia Cornet Art Exhibit March 8 & 9

Saturday March 8 reception from 4:00 - 6:00 PM

&

Sunday March 9 reception from 3:00 - 5:00 PM

$FREE

Ophelia is an award-winning artist whose lifelong passion for photography and oil painting has developed into a distinctive style pairing the two mediums. These surreal works fête female protagonists in snapshots of an intimate otherworldliness. 

Ophelia Cornet was born in Belgium to a family of artists and designers. After moving to the United States, she pursued photography and painting at Rutgers University. Ophelia then made her home in New Mexico, where she served as Head Art Instructor of the Albuquerque Museum for 20 years. She now paints full time in her adobe studio, where she combines her lifelong passion for photography and oil painting into a distinctive multi-step technique she calls Fotura.                                 

Artist Statement

My work is Feminist, spiritual, and surreal. I create in response to a world that is excessively masculine, accelerated, and materialistic. The art comes forth from my desire for a sense of counter-balance, to remember that we can reconnect with ourselves, each other, and the natural world. 

I portray women empowered in and by the fullness of their femininity—flourishing, resilient, and nurturing. I celebrate these qualities as not only vital for women, but for all people. My muses are often surrounded by powerful symbols. For example, pears are associated with individuality, fertility, and good luck. Eggs speak to me of the next generation. Being raised by my grandparents and raising three daughters, I see myself as one link in a long chain of ancestors.

The work also explores themes of a witness consciousness. This Eastern philosophy describes a calm state of awareness in which one doesn’t identify themselves with passing thoughts and feelings. My pieces often include symbolic hand positions called Mudras and symmetrically reflected figures to invoke this concept.

I reference recognizable sacred imagery from multiple cultures while simultaneously developing a personal, instinctive language of symbols. Each piece is an intimate reflection of my inner world, yet they are offered to viewers in an open-ended style, allowing each person to form their own emotional impressions. 

The mode of art-making also lends itself to this sense of alchemy and fluidity, allowing the subconscious to flow into surreal compositions. I call the style Fotura (fotografía y pintura). It is a distinctive technique blending my lifelong passion for original photography and oil painting. The multi-step process involves posing and photographing the model; printing, cutting, assembling images; and applying layers of plaster and paint to actualize the vision.

>More about the Artist: www.opheliacornet.com/

QUOTES FROM

Self-Actualizing Women:

Ophelia Cornet’s Feminist Symbolism

by Donald Kuspit

Donald Kuspit is one of America’s most distinguished art critics. He has served as a

contributing editor for Artforum and other publications, written monographs on

individual artists, lectured at numerous universities, and curated exhibitions. Kuspit

has also received awards for his art criticism. The following are excerpts from his

essay on Ophelia Cornet’s work.

“Cornet’s paintings are iconographically complex—an ingenious

integration of a variety of symbols alluding to femininity.”

“Surrealism is a kind of alchemical art, in that it is concerned to

transmute leaden reality into golden art with the help of the elixir of the

creative unconscious: to turn an ordinary woman into an extraordinary

goddess is truly an artistic—alchemical—feat.”

“The brilliance of Cornet’s creative apperception of woman—and

apperception of woman’s innate creativity—has to do with her use of

the varieties of feminine iconography to convey the regenerative power

of women’s rebellious libido. It is a powerful psychosocial critical art in

the guise of mythic-poetic art.”

“The second wave of feminist artists, epitomized by Cornet, are more

optimistic, emotionally healthy, and can be understood in terms of

Maslow’s humanistic psychology.”

“Cornet’s paintings are rich with subtle implications and symbolism… I

have paid a good deal of attention to Cornet’s symbolism, and I could

pay more, for it has its important place in the history of Symbolism…”

“Cornet’s paintings are aesthetic masterpieces as well as tours de

force of feminist art.”