{"id":62704,"date":"2022-03-16T09:34:49","date_gmt":"2022-03-16T15:34:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=62704"},"modified":"2023-11-25T18:15:51","modified_gmt":"2023-11-26T00:15:51","slug":"kristina-lenzis-absurdist-realm-of-self-portraiture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/kristina-lenzis-absurdist-realm-of-self-portraiture\/","title":{"rendered":"Kristina Lenzi&#8217;s Absurdist Realm of Self-Portraiture"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-62704 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-thumbnail'><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/kristina-lenzis-absurdist-realm-of-self-portraiture\/performance-artist-1\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"290\" height=\"290\" src=\"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Performance-Artist-1-290x290.png\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-62711\" srcset=\"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Performance-Artist-1-290x290.png 290w, https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Performance-Artist-1-120x120.png 120w, https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Performance-Artist-1-360x360.png 360w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 290px) 100vw, 290px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-62711'>\n\t\t\t\tPerformance Artist\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/kristina-lenzis-absurdist-realm-of-self-portraiture\/screen-shot-2022-03-24-at-8-52-22-am\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"290\" height=\"290\" src=\"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Screen-Shot-2022-03-24-at-8.52.22-AM-290x290.png\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-62836\" srcset=\"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Screen-Shot-2022-03-24-at-8.52.22-AM-290x290.png 290w, https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Screen-Shot-2022-03-24-at-8.52.22-AM-120x120.png 120w, https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Screen-Shot-2022-03-24-at-8.52.22-AM-360x360.png 360w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 290px) 100vw, 290px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-62836'>\n\t\t\t\tUsed-car Salesman\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/kristina-lenzis-absurdist-realm-of-self-portraiture\/artist-at-art-opening-2\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"290\" height=\"290\" src=\"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Artist-at-Art-Opening-1-290x290.png\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-62837\" srcset=\"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Artist-at-Art-Opening-1-290x290.png 290w, https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Artist-at-Art-Opening-1-120x120.png 120w, https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Artist-at-Art-Opening-1-360x360.png 360w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 290px) 100vw, 290px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-62837'>\n\t\t\t\tArtist at Art Opening\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl><br style=\"clear: both\" \/>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<h4>Faced with Kristina Lenzi\u2019s 11 wicked caricatures at Bountiful Davis Art Center, &#8220;subtle&#8221; might not be the first word that comes to mind. Such large, distorted heads sitting atop long necks that grow out of bodies so tiny a viewer may overlook them \u2014 it all feels less to do with refined expression and more aligned with spectacle. But look how anatomically correct the heads are, even as their flesh and bones fold toward cubist geometry, and then note how carefully light and shade are rendered, even on something the artist could not have seen until after she drew it. Although superficially they resemble caricatures, such as art students line up outside amusement parks and vacation resorts offering to draw, or professionals make at trade shows and the like, the context here is unconventional, if not outright puzzling.<\/h4>\n<h4>There\u2019s something going on here, something to do with deliberately using a finely-tuned set of skills to produce a mutant freak. Who draws herself this way? Although Lenzi has been teaching drawing and related skills at Weber State for years, her primary impact has been in the genre of Performance Art, and the sense of urgency at the core of Performance might have spread into her two-dimensional art. From the beginning, though, she functionally denied any distinction between her media, arguing that drawing is just as much a performance as stumbling through the City Library blindfolded, dragging two copies of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual \u2014 the catalog of acceptable mental disorders \u2014 by ropes. And after taking the time to closely study these undeniable self-portraits, it seems that while she\u2019s still concerned with the same urgent social abuses \u2014 of mental health, women, human rights, and a whole host of what are coming to be known as identity issues \u2014 her approach has become increasingly less provocative: calibrated more to entertain and engage, rather than polarize an audience. By making imagery everyone can agree on, even laugh at, then slipping in the ideas that really matter to her, maybe she can take her audience along with her.<\/h4>\n<h4>In popular speech, any image distorted so as to be dream-like risks being labeled &#8220;surreal,&#8221; and Lenzi\u2019s heads, each titled &#8220;Self Portrait Posing As a (Vocational Identity),&#8221; are no less likely to suffer that fate. Ironically, Lenzi\u2019s characterization of her process comes close to what the original Surrealists said about their work, which was that they followed their impulses without rational intervention, only discovering a justification after the fact, if then. This, after all, is the key to working from the unconscious. Compare that to Lenzi\u2019s artist\u2019s statement:<\/h4>\n<h4 style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">These distorted self-portraits come from a humorous place in me. While I draw, I laugh throughout the drawing process at the idea of placing myself in a sort of absurdity. I find little bodies to collage first and then I add the drawing of the long neck and large, distorted head with a specific persona in mind. But upon closer inspection, after the process, seriousness emerges in regard to the drawings as finished products.<\/h4>\n<h4>It may be that the best way to fathom this project is to follow the initial joke and decode the symbols to see how they get serious together. The eleven fictional self-portraits include the following:<\/h4>\n<h4 style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Wall Street Investment Banker<br \/>\nArtist at an Art Opening<br \/>\nConvicted Serial Killer<br \/>\nPlastic Surgeon<br \/>\nNight Show Host<br \/>\nImportant Art Department Chair<br \/>\nUsed Car Salesman<br \/>\nPerformance Artist<br \/>\nPresidential Speech Writer<br \/>\nWedding Planner<br \/>\nGraduate Student<\/h4>\n<h4>What more can be said about this list than that it reads like the set-up for a really mean joke? Since when does the job description for a president\u2019s speech writer overlap with that of a serial killer? What do an investment banker and a used car salesman have in common? How is a wedding planner like a plastic surgeon? Closer to the heart of the matter, though, the broader and more general question might be &#8220;Who wants these jobs anyway?&#8221; It\u2019s been said that so long as a person\u2019s work provides something that others genuinely need, the work can be both satisfying and fulfilling. How do these careers measure on that scale?<\/h4>\n<h4>Up to a point, the viewer might have taken the overall title \u2014 &#8220;The Self-Important Artist&#8221; \u2014 as self-criticism, even self-mockery aiming to use oneself, one\u2019s own confession, to point out how advancement, status, and such physical icons of success as clothing and haircuts can warp achievement, and the person who attains it. Lenzi might add that there is some institutional sexism, racism, and class warfare if you but look deep enough. But for now, she\u2019s content to make points her audience can agree on, even if they\u2019re not quite sure what they are, and just as she describes the joke becoming more serious as she finds her way through it, the predicament she describes takes on much broader and more serious implications, and the misshapen heads begin to make a different degree of sense. They begin to look caught in some sort of super wind storm that is twisting them all out of shape. Or they resemble the heads of newborn babies, but with the features of adults. Or, maybe they\u2019re not heads at all. How about cinematic granaries tossed about by Hollywood tornados, warping like paper lanterns in the storm? They make visible the concealed blows and hidden injuries that accumulate while ambition, office politics, greed, and fear do their worst to dreams and ideals.<\/h4>\n<div id=\"attachment_62715\" style=\"width: 360px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Presidential-Speech-Writer.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-62715\" class=\"wp-image-62715 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Presidential-Speech-Writer-350x473.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"473\" srcset=\"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Presidential-Speech-Writer-350x473.png 350w, https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Presidential-Speech-Writer.png 578w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-62715\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">&#8220;Presidential Speech Writer&#8221;<\/p><\/div>\n<h4>So how about this? What if Lenzi is exploring the Portrait of Dorian Gray, American Capitalist style? What if the man in the expensive suit with the narrow tie shares more than he thinks with the guy who works in the equally-carefully chosen leisure outfit? What each would look like if we could only see them through some spiritual X-ray machine? Could we see the psychic cost of their success, or failure, or just the choices they made and continue to make? What if these are the portraits of those whom Kristina Lenzi has met on the way up through art school and some miscellaneous day jobs, even as they were struggling to hold their ground, or were perhaps already on their way back down?<\/h4>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"comp-kzzzvcc7\" class=\"_2Hij5\" data-testid=\"richTextElement\">\n<p class=\"font_3\"><em>The Self: Two Artists, Multiple Projections<\/em>, featuring Kristina Lenzi and Marti Grace Ashby, <a href=\"http:\/\/bdac.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bountiful Davis Art Center<\/a>, Bountiful, through Apr. 30.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Faced with Kristina Lenzi\u2019s 11 wicked caricatures at Bountiful Davis Art Center, &#8220;subtle&#8221; might not be the first word that comes to mind. Such large, distorted heads sitting atop long necks that grow out of bodies so tiny a viewer may overlook them \u2014 it all feels less [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":847,"featured_media":62838,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_piecal_is_event":false,"_piecal_start_date":"","_piecal_end_date":"","_piecal_is_allday":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,14],"tags":[1153,325],"class_list":["post-62704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exhibition_reviews","category-visual_arts","tag-bdac","tag-kristina-lenzi"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Screen-Shot-2022-03-24-at-8.56.06-AM.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-06 10:55:50","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/847"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62704"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62704\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72347,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62704\/revisions\/72347"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}