Carol Corey Fine Art

The Women, an exhibition of new paintings by Elise Ansel, opens Saturday at Carol Corey Gallery in Kent.

Ansel is a visual translator who takes Old Masters’ paintings and renders them in a contemporary artistic language, shifting them into abstraction and transforming their meaning and message. In The Women, Ansel references works by Titian, Bellini, Goya, Boucher, Delacroix, Gentileschi and Ruysch. Each explores the role of women in different ways – as subject or artist or both.

In Sardanapalus, based on Delacroix’s The Death of Sardanapalus (1827), Ansel captures the color, light, movement and energy of the original painting but shifts the literal narrative, transforming its meaning and message. For Ansel, the act of painting represents an alternative way of seeing, allowing her to engage in an intimate dialogue with her source and to comprehend it on a more profound level.

Born in New York City, Elise Ansel received her BA from Brown University and her MFA from Southern Methodist University, Dallas. Ansel has been the focus of many solo exhibitions, including those at Danese/Corey in New York City in 2017 and 2018 and, most recently, at Cadogan Contemporary in London in 2019, David Klein Gallery in Michigan in 2020, and Carol Corey Fine Art in Kent in 2020.

Carol Corey Gallery carries on the century-old tradition of fine art in Kent. The gallery began its history in spring 2020 when Corey relocated from New York City. Prior to moving to Kent, she worked with her friend and business partner, Renato Danese in their gallery Danese/Corey in the Chelsea district of the city.

Following Danese’s death in December 2020, the gallery closed and Corey found her new location at 12 Old Barn Road, a unique enclave of more than a dozen buildings–six renovated barns alongside new structures—which houses several galleries, a design store, a bookshop and restaurants.

The gallery is open Thursday to Sunday and by appointment; 917-797-9654; carol@carolcoreyfineart.com.