Circe Irasema, an artist based in Mexico City, critiques the male gaze's dominance in Western art history through her innovative use of cosmetics in her works. By integrating colorful eyeshadows, blushes, and acrylic nails with traditional materials, she crafts pieces that reflect intimate and often overlooked stories related to femininity and beauty. Her series, Cosmic Painting, explores the connection between cosmetics and harmony. Irasema emphasizes the fragility of her materials, symbolizing care and a departure from conventional, privileging high art narratives.
The artist, who lives and works in Mexico City, thinks deeply about the dominance of the male gaze in Western art history and how that authority influences the technical and material qualities of the works themselves.
Using colorful eyeshadow cakes, powder blushes, and long acrylic nails, Irasema creates 'an alternative version of the history of painting,' telling intimate stories about the body, the feminine, and beauty.
Given the delicate nature of powder compacts, the fragile material requires a level of care that becomes symbolic for the artist, distancing itself from academia.
Many of the works shown here are part of a series titled Cosmic Painting, a nod to the shared etymological root of the terms cosmetics and cosmos.
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