November 28th-January 4th 2022

In Spell, Constanza Schaffner’s second solo exhibition at Central Fine, Painting becomes an oblique journal, which is both a celebration and a critique of the medium per-se. In Schaffner’s practice the poetic effort dictates the spelling, the spell, and the spiel ('game' in German), proposing an expressive urgency that expands itself, beyond the amalgamation of sounds and terms.

Schaffner’s works create incisive fantasies, while addressing Painting’s capacity to observe its own performativity ­­­–defined by the thickness of painted flesh and its tendency towards ‘abstraction.’ In her paintings each pore becomes, either, an isolated brushstroke or a code, while searching for the space where the reverberations of life intersect the body. In a work titled Mi Soleado Rincón, flowers sprout from a bald head which, in turn, emerges from a cubic shape where a face is amplified, as if projected onto that form. The element of surprise carries, within, horror and beauty, creating an uncanny universe populated by playful allusions to pulp literature, or B cinema, as well as by Painting/Narcissism’s capacity to engulf the other in its voracious appetite for attention.

In the act of gazing inwards to paint, Schaffner’s approach to Painting was influenced by Chantal Ackerman’s methodology of using herself as material for her films, in works such as Saute ma Ville or Je Tu Il Elle. Like Ackerman, Schaffner seems fascinated and horrified when representing/liberating/examining the self. Alguien Tiembla shows the artist’s skin magnified to the point where it seems inhabited by what looks like mold, random patterns, and growths. The pose reminds us of the artist framing herself, as Madonna did in Vogue. The painting shows Schaffner touching herself, shocked at her own vibration, pondering whether the image/herself exists somewhere between life and death. Like in a scene out of a vampire movie, at the moment when the sun hits the creature, we see Schaffner becoming gold dust, spelling out her finitude.

Schaffner’s paintings demand attention, not only in their scale, larger than herself, but also in that they boldly embody the empowering enthusiasm of great ideas, while remaining deeply personal, and intimate. The exposure to life, as a harsh light, shapes these paintings as theoretical and sensual archives, which, like poems, allow for the other’s involvement in their inherent mystery.

Constanza Schaffner was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1989. Her work has been recently included in group presentations at Bortolami Gallery, New York; Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, London; Park View, Los Angeles; and Galerie Houssenot, Paris. Her paintings are included in the collections of the Hall Art Foundation, Germany-USA; and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami.