![Rebecca Campbell - Persephone [2009]](http://farm2.staticflickr.com/1554/25893281134_f955968a3a_o.png)
Rebecca Campbell doesn’t think of her figurative paintings as portraits, but rather as symbolic narratives or dream sequences. Drawn to extremes, Campbell depicts young women, rainbows, fireworks, suburban life, and atomic explosions in tense melodramatic scenarios that seem extracted from the subconscious. Her virtuoso paint handling is fast and loose. “I chase life and death, light, scale, power, and carnality with my brush,” Campbell explains. “These wonders often masquerade as one another and I paint the ring in which they perform.”
[L.A. Louver, Venice - Oil on canvas, 45.7 × 45.7 cm]