DREAMSCAPE: PABLO BENZO, MARINA IGLESIAS, EMMA STEINKRAUS AND AUGUSTINA WANG
Steve Turner is pleased to present Dreamscape, a four-person exhibition featuring recent paintings by Pablo Benzo, Marina Iglesias, Emma Steinkraus and Augustina Wang. Though separated by great distance, diverse circumstances and varying motivations, the four artists have studio practices that rely on reinvention, imagination and dream. Classic symbols including a sphynx, unicorns, mirrors and windows fill their images which are at once real and believable, fanciful and impossible.
Pablo Benzo creates paintings that are inspired by imagination, dream, design, modern painting and nature. In Dreamscape, he is presenting two paintings, one inspired by Modigliani and another by Cezanne, that include fanciful interiors and furniture within a tropical setting of bright colors. The juxtaposition puts the viewer into an exotic setting that is emotional, rhythmic and musical.
Marina Iglesias creates paintings that are based on folklore, medieval and Renaissance painting, myth, tarot and ancient scientific illustration. Familiar and invented imagery are intermingled within verdant landscapes populated by animals and mysterious female characters. Her works allude to the cycles of life and convey hope in spite of the world’s travails.
Emma Steinkraus creates paintings that incorporate mythological imagery to express contemporary ideas about gender and ecology. In Sphinx in a Pumpkin Patch, the mythological creature is intended to convey human interconnectedness with nature.
Augustina Wang creates paintings that depict powerful Asian women in fantastical settings of her own invention. Inspired by the imagery of video games and the oppression historically faced by Asian women, Wang conjures up scenes with strong women seeking justice and retribution. Elegance and violence are are strange partners yet in Wang’s paintings they coexist nicely.
Pablo Benzo (born Santiago, 1982) earned a degree in Graphic Design at University of Chile, 2009 before soon relocating to Berlin where he still resides. In recent years, his work has been included in numerous group exhibitions as well as solo exhibitions at BC Gallery, Basel (2021); Dio Horia, Mykonos (2021); Gallery Animal, Santiago (2018 & 2020) and Steve Turner, Los Angeles (2023).
Marina Iglesias (born in 1991, Puerto Real, Cádiz, Spain) earned a BA in Fine Arts and an MA in Artistic Production at the Universitat Politècnica de València. She has had solo exhibitions at Tuesday to Friday Gallery, Valencia (2021); Steve Turner, Los Angeles (2023) and Eligere Gallery, Seoul (2024). She will have her second solo exhibition at Steve Turner in November 2024.
Emma Steinkraus (b. 1987, Ithaca, New York) earned a Bachelor of Arts in Studio Art from Williams College and later a Masters in Fine Arts in Painting & Drawing with an Intermedia concentration from the University of Iowa. She had a solo exhibition at 1969 Gallery, New York (2023) and her work has been included in group exhibitions at Untitled Art Fair, Miami; Sow & Tailor, Hong Kong; Hashimoto Contemporary, Los Angeles and Deanna Evans Project, New York.
Augustina Wang (b. 1999, New York) received her BFA in Painting from the Rhode Island School of Design (2022). She has had a solo exhibition at Sow & Tailor, Los Angeles (2023) and has presented works in group exhibitions at Thierry Goldberg, New York; Sow & Tailor, Los Angeles; Vollery Gallery, Dubai and Cierra Britton Gallery, New York.