“I’m interested in the dark history of women in America,” says the multi-disciplinary artist Marnie Weber. “The witch trials, the objectification … the coming of age, the loss of innocence, and the gothic underbelly. I reimagine these themes through my own narrative.” In this exhibition, Weber’s narratives take the form of collage—colorful images of gardens, farmlands, and forests populated by girls in dresses cut from the pages of 1960s Sears catalogues. What seem to be cheerful invitations into the artist’s subconscious are actually, upon closer observation, scenes of mythic portent. The girls wear masks, or they fuse with the flora, or have heads shaped like moths. It’s as if they are furies in training. “The characters are definitely involved in something strange,” says Weber, “and transformational.” —E.C.
The Arts Intel Report
Marnie Weber: The Sea Witch and Other Stories
Marnie Weber, “Daisies in the Wheat Field,” 2019. Courtesy of Simon Lee Gallery.