Keelin Montzingo

based in New York City, USA

Keelin’s paintings explore the authorship of the gaze and how this has changed within the context of social media. Using the motif of the cutout figures, observing how the semiotics of the female pose exist in an echo chamber where the real mirrors the constructed and the constructed seeks the real - in perpetuity.

Keelin observes how in a world of sousveillance where one has control over their own image, the power used to take ownership of identity also feeds into long established stereotypes. These paintings do not criticise the use of self promotion but question whether the female is collectively perpetuating the male gaze or rather reclaiming the body, defining a empowering narrative where the female speaks directly to the female in celebration of the divine feminine.

Growing up in a house filled with physiotherapy instruments and anatomy books her relationship to her own body morphed from one of scientific intrigue to intuitive connection. This shift exists within her work, her figures maintain a language of precision yet refuse to be more than symbols, the same woman repeated again and again to speak of many.