Weaverville – Izzy Losskarn is a recent graduate of UNC Asheville with both a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and a Bachelor of Art History degree. Losskarn uses soft pastels, pastel pencils, and blending tools to create her artwork. These are large in scale, vivid in chroma, and showcase her incredible eye for detail. Her solo exhibition at Slouch Gallery in Weaverville, entitled”You’re Doing It Wrong,” demonstrates not only Losskarn’s technical skill, but a strong conceptual vision as well. Her hyper-realistic representations of wall outlets, plastic cutlery, grocery store produce, and lit matches express a familiar yet fantastic improbability to the viewer.
In her artist’s statement, Losskarn describes to the Tribune, “A solo exhibition of hyperrealistic, absurd pastel drawings of pop culture items, ‘You’re Doing It Wrong’ acts as a relatable and accessible way to spark the discussion and understanding of the larger, often unseen impacts of gendered experiences.”
In just a few short moments of conversation with Izzy at the opening of her show, her eloquence in regard to her art and the vitality of her message shone through. She expanded, “Over time, everyone has learned this concept of gender that’s been marketed to us, and it’s very apparent in areas of the household. You see gender stereotypes represented in popular culture a lot, in relation to the household. So, all of the objects that appear in my drawings are household objects—familiar things. My artwork accesses that network of childhood experiences through these little familiar objects, and points out the absurdities of what we call”gender” in contemporary culture and the way we represent that. I’m really interested in marketing and how we consume it, and, by effect, how we consume gender based on this constant media we’re intaking.”
An Artist’s Approach
Losskarn explains that her process begins with a feeling or “memory of an experience.” “This thing that happened to me last week is now bringing up memories of what happened to me as a child in terms of gendered experiences. Being caught up in gender feels like something you’re supposed to do… and it feels like relinquishing that and walking away from it or doing something else is something you’re not supposed to do. So, the outlets were kind of a response to that, like, ‘I’m doing this thing that everyone said I shouldn’t do and… nothing happened.’ All of my objects are also things that you use constantly in daily life.”
She reflects on using pastels for her work:”I love that I can do so many layers and it’s so tactile. I work on sanded paper, and I lay tons of color down. If I’m trying to make a smooth edge, I’ll just use my hand and rub the whole thing. It’s really kinetic and I just feel really good while I’m doing it. It feels really cathartic. Soft pastel is kind of temporary… I don’t use fixative [a spray sealant often used on the last layer of a pastel, charcoal, or graphite drawing], so it’s liable to fall off the paper in a hundred years. I just had the thought the other day, ‘There were pastels before there was spray fixative.’ So it’s fine.” This acknowledgement that her pieces have a life-span of their own is reinforced by their striking glowing quality, as though they have consciousness among us.
Deep diving into Metaphor
When asked if she will begin a new series or show similar work soon, Losskarn replies, “I definitely will be continuing to make work like this. “I love working in metaphors. Hyper-realism is so great for me because I feel like I can zoom in on these tiny details—forgotten moments and overlooked things. I have an exhibition coming up in June at Revolve. I’m going to have a huge breakfast table-themed exhibition. It’s going to be magical. I just want to tell as many people about this as possible, so I need to keep making it. and bigger every time.”
Izzy Losskarn’s exhibition “You’re Doing It Wrong” is certainly not one to miss. It will be shown at the Slouch Gallery in Weaverville until November 13th.