Freckle Face, 2015 Wood and dye 11.25 x 7 x 3.5 inches
Turning Head, 2015 Wood and dye 15 x 13.5 x 5.5 inches
View From Cave, 2015 Oil on canvas 9 x 12 inches
Looking Back, 2015 Oil on canvas 14 x 11 inches
Curses, 2015 Oil on canvas 9 x 12 inches
Bunny, 2015 Oil on canvas 14 x 11 inches
Burn Pile, 2015 Oil on canvas 12 x 9 inches
Nature Break, 2015 Oil on canvas 14 x 11 inches
Smokers, 2015 Pigment print on silk scarf 36 x 36 inches Edition of 10
Crazy Arms
March 13 – April 14, 2015
CAPITAL 716 Sacramento Street San Francisco, CA 94108 CAPITAL is pleased to present a solo exhibition by Rainen Knecht.
“Now blue ain't the word for the way that I feel And the storm's brewing in this heart of mine This ain't no crazy dream I know that it's real And you're someone else's love now you're not mine…”
For Rainen Knecht painting is a lonely practice. Over the last year she has been living in the woods of Washington State, these works are the result of feeling isolated from the youth market and share a much deeper relationship to Outsider or Folk Artists from the Pacific North West. Rainen considers these works to be “unabashedly traditional, a naïve gesture of defiance, free and imaginative, paintings from the mind, painting as therapy”. Her works are intuitive; the surfaces are constantly changing, making new discoveries and finding new problems, spontaneous gestures leading to controlled contradictions. Sometimes the result is a painting within a painting, they remain personal but are always true to the medium, “I care about the medium”. These works are a direct reference to loss, suffering and the desire to understanding compassion in her practice. These works are funny, deep, and sometimes painful. A mist of dark humor is prevalent. Surrealism, symbolism, vulnerability, fairy tales, “woman energy”, and heavy feelings of physicality, fantasy and disturbing realities, adorn the picture planes.
No apologies...
Born in Gig Harbor, WA in 1982 Rainen Knecht lives and works in Portland. She graduated from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2006. She received the Madjrakoff Painting award as an undergraduate. Previously, Knecht has exhibited her work at Either Way, San Los Angeles, Adobe Book, San Francisco, Baer Ridgeway, San Francisco. CAPITAL has produced a limited edition silk scarf from an original watercolor by Rainen Knecht. Each scarf will be accompanied by a certificate of authenticity, signed and numbered by the artist.