Page 81 - The MoMA/ Guggenheim issue of World of Art magazine (2003)

Lynda mahan envisioned an art space that
could exist in the same morbidly intoxicating
world as her paintings and those she
admires. With Dabora gallery, she has given
this idea a life of its own. brooklyn locals
and manhattan art enthusiasts alike find in
Dabora not only a showcase of rich, quality
work; they find themselves taking part in an
exhilarating experience where lush, seductive
surroundings of velvet curtains, victorian
furniture, taxidermy and subtly menacing
shadows create a living, breathing stage of
intangible visual pleasures. Featuring solo
shows and thematic exhibits drawing together
artists from around the US and the world,
the artwork at Dabora is complimented by an
array of new york’s most out-there magicians,
performers, and curiosity acts, whose oddly-
timed appearances only add to the strangely
alluring sense of disorientation that is Dabora’s
mORT & ST. a. TRaV
trademark. Rounding out the days and nights
of Dabora are the multifarious photo shoots 2000 acRyLic On canVaS
and private events that take place within its 122 x 91,5 cm. / 48” x 36”
walls. if only they could talk.

i have always been fascinated by portraiture,
The face as an image to stare at as it stares
back. Since childhood, the one consistent
obsession and theme in my work has been
the rendering of the face. The spots first
appeared in my paintings as beauty marks
like the elaborate black dots used to adorn
the French royal court of the 18th century,
then they began to take over the portraits
in chaotic patterns like a cancer of the skin.
more recently i¹ve begun to experiment with
the black spot and have become fascinated
by the basic flat abstract and randomness of
their appearance, incorporating their flatness
into the more shapely and painterly surface
of my portraits. The spot portraits are to me
a study of surface and pattern, the mixing of
classic technique and random abstract shape
and how they react with one another.

SPOT PORTR aiT ii
acrylic on wooD
20 x 25,4 cM. / 8 x10 in.
2002

WORLD of aRT 79