Rachel Bliss
The Meaning of Pictures
Past and Present

December 4 - 26, 2009

Reception: First Friday, December 4, 6 - 8:30 pm

An exhibition of paintings by Rachel Bliss, currently on view at Silicon Gallery Fine Art Prints, offers a tantalizing glimpse of the work of this extraordinarily talented but under-recognized Philadelphia artist. Academy-trained Bliss exposes and strips bare the darkest inequities in our world with grace and terrifying beauty, mitigated by a very lively wit as shown in Canned Erotica. Layering pigment and varnish, and then carefully, but violently, burning, cutting and scraping to create texture and tone, Bliss creates paintings which are surprisingly serenely but not innocent. The watchful eye of the turkey in Thanksgiving and the calm face of the injured child in The Window gaze quietly at the viewer by do not fully mask the darker subtext of the paintings they inhabit. Bliss weaves her very personal experiences of family and friends into every image but the themes have a universal message and profound impact. If you don’t want to think, this is not your exhibition, but to have the opportunity to see the work of this uniquely creative local artist.