By Hanita Schwartz

Relicaptia explores how revisionism and appropriation can be used to reinterpret traditional narratives surrounding the patriarchal canon of Western Art. Schwartz’s work engages many of the core tenets of postmodern art by challenging notions of authenticity and identity in modern art. This work re-identifies the semiotic relationship of part to whole through deliberate destruction of the past, evoking conversations about truth, bias, and the status quo while both literally and figuratively liberating art from the page.

Utilizing a 19th and 20th century modern art history book as her primary medium, Schwartz’s process involves using solvent in a series of stages to slowly erase reproduction images from each of the pages, rendering the figurative abstract and releasing the once-static gallery-bound paintings into dynamic compositions that come to life with each turn of the page. Each page is a labor of personal narrative where the act of erasure renders once-static gallery-bound paintings into dynamic ephemera waiting to be revealed with each turn of the page. The resulting palimpsest of her work focuses the eye on the primacy of the unseen, and Schwartz’s work reveals the subconscious of the original painting and expands the parameters of art-making.

Read Hanita’s full statement here.

ABOUT THE ARTIST