Denise Stewart-Sanabria

Region: South

Website: https://stewart-sanabria.com/

City / State: Knoxville, TN

I use contemporary hyperrealism loosely informed by early European vanitas painting clichés to explore human culture and behavior. Whether my paintings are an outright statement of some anthropological observation or a narrative of human foibles, I try to insert just enough humor and lushness to make them as palatable as possible. My recent work involves allegorical narratives driven by historical commercial wallpaper lurking behind iconic contemporary baked goods and candy. A classic French pastoral toile print in a decidedly nontraditional color looms above a stack of artificially colored Moon Pies and junk food. A classic Asian toile that I populated with Godzilla and his fellow–movie monsters sits behind a vast array of candy that appears to have been subjected to radioactive mutation.