A Pentimento in painting, refers to the traces of an earlier image that is shimmering through the top layer of paint. It can reveal a glimpse into the artist’s creative process and the evolution of the work over time.
Not knowing much about the Brooklyn-based artist Female Pentimento, I read this peculiar alias as a metaphor for a permeable gender identity. But I also recognize this quality of interpenetrating layers of reality in the depicted landscapes. On a surface level, they reflect our world, while at the same time being imbued with an ominous presence that reminds me of the frailty of everything we deem safe and irrefutable.
I’ve been creating work through a lens of biospiritualism. Thinking about ways I can look to nature to better understand myself. Part of that has been imagining alternate realities where I embody a different form: another creature or something noncorporeal entirely (like a light portal).
From an interview with Coeval Magazine
