Using acrylic nails and hand-stitched sequins, Frances Goodman explores the concept of female identity in her portraits and sculptures. A new show at Richard Taittinger Gallery, titled “Beneath Her,” collects the South African artist’s most recent works around this journey. Goodman was last featured on cctvta.com here.
Two pieces below from the show, “Hopelessly Devoted…” and “Wide-Eyed,” have sequins applied to canvas. Her writhing and more abstract sculptures are constructed with fake nails.
“For the purposes of the exhibition, the surface not only refers to the skin, it also alludes to the way a woman presents herself to the world, the image she wishes to portray and the lengths she will go to maintain and perfect the exterior; whilst the ‘beneath’ is both the flesh and bones under the skin as well as the complexity of character and the time, effort and exertion that goes into the ‘making’ of a woman,” a statement says.
In this show, Goodman has taken quilting, embroidery, crochet, and other traditionally domestic activities and “in keeping with historical and present feminist craft art practices, subverted them.”
This is the gallery’s second show with Goodman. The show kicks off on Oct. 26 and runs through Dec. 23 at the New York City gallery.
Never one to shy away from the macabre, artist and graphic designer 
Brooklyn-based, Michigan-raised artist