Natalie Lanese

Region: Midwest

Website: http://www.natalielanese.com

City / State: Cleveland, OH

My work begins as an experiment with the possibilities of collage on a variety of surfaces or backgrounds. From building a believable domestic interior on flat areas of color and pattern to transforming these patterns into geometric landscapes, the collaged elements create conceptual spaces and immediate psychological realities. Essential to the work is the scale relationship between the collaged and the painted elements; this relationship allows the work to confront ideas of image versus reality, depth, and depthlessness.

My more recent work abandons collage in the traditional sense of cutting and pasting and focuses on repeated hard-edged patterns with manipulated perspective lines. These elements, usually painted on a two-dimensional surface, have been central to my painting practice for several years. Historically, collage has served as a “sculptural” part of my process—pieces that I hold in my hands and apply to the painted surface. Recently, I have begun to think about how objects, the space itself, and even viewers of the work might lend themselves as collage in the overall image.