Oh, Stella Im Hultberg! How we love your moody portraits of waifish chicks with crazy hair.
Hultberg, a Korean-born, Brooklyn-based illustrator and painter, has been churning out a prolific body of work over the last several years, often selling out collections before they're even hung. We swooned over last year's illustrative pieces on tea-stained paper, featuring graceful, dewy-faced women with inky hair and noses so tiny we wanted to bite them.
Unlike the vintage pulpy texture of her previous work, paintings from her new series, “Raveled”—on display at Thinkspace Gallery starting this Friday, August 8—are meatier, rendered in oil on canvas. Featuring less of the dusty grace of her past work, these pieces employ deeper, heavier colors and brooding subjects. Why the shift?
Hultberg just spent time overseas and returned with a tangle of emotions about the darker aspects of relationships. “Raveled” is described as the young painter's cathartic stab at sorting through “the side of human nature that is suppressed or unspoken in most people.”
What does this mean for the viewer? Work with greater depth, more emotion and, as it turns out, slightly more nudity. Check out Hultberg's solo show, which will run through September 5, to catch a glimpse of her subjects' complex emotional states.
Click here for a sneak preview of work from Stella Im Hultberg's “Raveled” show »
Click here for location information for “Raveled,” opening Fri., Aug. 8, at Thinkspace Gallery »
See work from last year's show »
Can't get enough of Stella? Peruse our Q&A with her »
Alie Ward is Events editor for Metromix Los Angeles.
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