Sioban Lombardi

Body Grid
oil on wood panels
12 x 6 in. (each) (27 panels)

As a painter, I regularly inhabit the realm of illusion. In this way, I am interested the aspects of truth and fiction that are deployed in the public presentation and private reality of our experience. What fictions do we create for public view? What is the private reality?

The “Body Grid” began in 2008 when I found myself immersed in a peer group that was, on balance, 20-25 years younger than myself. It was highly uncomfortable. I decided to examine the actuality of my middle-aged body by documenting and openly displaying it to this peer group, at first heightening and then relieving my own discomfort. This project has continued for 4 years, though the panels are now executed less frequently.

The paintings “Truth” and “Fiction” employ the same strategy of examining an illusion of our higher self that we may carry around with us, versus the truth of our foibles, flaws and essential frailty.

© Sioban Lombardi