The Gallery Steiner, Vienna Presents California Fine Artist Donna Isham - SHE: Raw, Naked, Bold

LOS ANGELES, CA. (July 2020) - Fine artist Donna Isham’s first European exhibit titled SHE: Raw, Naked, Bold opened June 29, 2020 at The Gallery Steiner (KurrentGasse 4/1, 1010 Vienna (Old Town)) in Vienna, Austria. The exhibit will present Donna Isham’s thought provoking female-centric figurative series that explores the power and beauty of the unrestrained woman. The gallery will host a Vernissage on Thursday, July 2, 2020 from 6:00pm - 10:00pm and the exhibit will be on display through July 17, 2020. 

Donna Isham’s figurative works are naked, raw and beautiful. Painting from live models, photographs and imagination with materials - oil, acrylic, pen, charcoal and pastels - the essence of Isham’s work, viscerally contextualizes the courage, strength, and passion of the female form. "This entire series embraces a more fluid concept of female beauty and power,” Isham states, “we can no longer be bound to some unattainable ideal of perfection. We must celebrate our diversity and our individuality. I want to depict the true beauty of those who will no longer be marginalized, who challenge the status quo. Fearless and flawed, these women are beautiful.”
Utilizing a range of visuality - sinuous lines, layered patterning, strong colors, dynamic brush work and palette knife - Isham deliberately creates ambiguous, yet beautifully forward female forms that can be experienced uniquely and personally through a female gaze. Isham allows and insists the viewer interject themselves and their own unique viewpoints. This creates a community of profound and diverse emotional experiences that transcend culture, language, and geographical location and that, combined, support the profound concept of “womanhood” today.

Donna Isham’s passion for redefining outmoded standards of beauty was recognized following her ‘UnBound’ art installation, featured during Art Basel, with Notable Magazine calling Isham’s work, “this is what feminist art looks like.”   Isham's work is equally focused on freedom of expression, “my figurative series is poetic and raw and speaks more to emotion,” says Isham. “I am a feminist but primarily a humanist. Free expression is a passion of mine, and with this work I wanted to distill feelings in order to create a dialogue with the viewer. The model is gazing directly at the viewer, bold and unapologetic.” Applying vibrant and muted colors, along with fast gestural mark making, Isham depicts raw, unfiltered passion.   Donna Isham draws influence from her vast experience in fashion and entertainment. Her paintings are part of private collections worldwide, and her work has been exhibited at numerous galleries across the country including New York City, Los Angeles, Miami, Vienna (Austria), and Nantucket and with several galleries in 2018 and 2019 during Art Basel, Miami. Her career as a fine artist has also taken a philanthropic route, with Isham serving as the President of Artists for Human Rights Foundation, where she uses her creativity and expertise to create a more tolerant world. Most recently she was featured as an arts educator with non profit children’s organization, Art Of Elysium, in Los Angeles.