Hovnanian is known for her ongoing exploration of deep stereotypes as they pertain to female beauty, as well as off-camera realities behind the public illusions of beauty. Her visual vocabulary includes trophies, narcissus flowers, tiaras, sculptures of swimsuits, and cosmetics and the media environment that surrounds and supports them. Utilizing the large-scale platform of the Texas and California psyche (the places where she spent her formative years), the artist examines beauty and the “trophy beauty” as powerful symbols of contemporary values.
The artist calls attention to society and the media’s standards of beauty in a series of photographs entitled Texas Beauty Cream, 2011, that includes actual copy from advertisements for beauty products, such as “I guess mother nature caught up with me after 15 years of marriage…” and “Don’t let aging chew up your body. You have a right to look your Hollywood best.” Each Texas Beauty Cream presents its own sales pitch and promise for eternal beauty and satisfaction.
Hovnanian's series of photographs, Too Good To Be True, 2011, further amplify the pressures of beauty and include a corporate Galahad enthroned on his wing chair; preening bodybuilders; a sleeping beauty surrounded by her paraphernalia; and a meat saw representing the cutting agoniesof divorce.
Utilizing the trappings of today’s cultural imagery, these works are intended to jolt perceptions of beauty and reference how the depiction of beauty in the media fuels women’s anxieties.
Rachel Lee Hovnanian works and lives in New York City. She has had solo exhibitions in New York, Chicago, LA, Houston, Dallas, Madrid, Barcelona, Antwerp and Turkey. She exhibited with Leila Heller Gallery in Dubai and at Abu Dhabi Art last year. Hovnanian most recently set up a summer studio in Shanghai and will have a solo exhibition in New York this spring at Leila Heller Gallery.
