Primarily working in painting and drawing, Virginia Townsend is currently developing two different bodies of work. The first, a series of small landscape paintings, depicts rivers, mountains, and open fields, all undisturbed by humans. In these serene scenes, she combines flat, bright colors with the more naturalistic textures made through dry brush techniques, blurring the line between abstraction and representation. Fields of roses are simplified as repetitive dabs of paint, and water is described in a hazy mix of yellows, blues, and greens.
In the second body of work, Townsend dives into her decade-long tenure in sex work, creating vibrant marker drawings of women in various poses. Referencing images of sex workers, she explores what it means to truly own one's sexuality. In some pieces, a thick bar is drawn over a portion of the subject. Townsend describes this as a metaphor for the ways that womens' bodies are often objectified by part. In her drawings, women stretch languorously while nude, read books in lingerie, stand with a hip cocked to the side — for Townsend, each pose represents the ability to leverage power. "My women represent power, and power is the ultimate envy," she says. "It's easily torn away by words and actions. Therefore, a woman showing power is also showing vulnerability."
Townsend has presented work in recent Interact group exhibitions, including We Are Not Disposable (2020), Groundswell at Artspace Jackson Flats (2019), and Saint Paul Art Crawl (2019).
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