Efrat Merin
Stay Gold
Jackson's Painting Prize 2022
Cold Encaustic
Canvas
182 x 137 cm
“I am an artist working across multiple mediums, mainly painting, drawing and filmmaking. My works set forth a queer retelling of mythical narratives. Gorgons, witches, hybrids, and hermaphrodites fuse into an image of queer subconsciousness. Nakedness is disengaged from sexuality, binaries of femininity and masculinity are transgressed. Female desire, with its long history of being demonised, is unabashedly celebrated; the female gaze regains its power.
In my recent works, I use the sgraffito technique, in which parts of the surface are scratched and removed, thus exposing the layer underneath. I use cold encaustic paint, which readily accepts every mark. Revealing rather than adding, this archaeological-like process endows the works with a quality of discovery.”