Zoe Brice is a Brooklyn based artist working primarily with paint. She received her BFA from NYU in 2015. She transforms her research of mythology and folklore into thematic representations, re-presenting and subverting ideas from the Classical and Ancient worlds. Additionally, she draws inspiration from illuminated manuscripts and ancient vase painting, comparative anthropology, and philosophy. Her work has been featured in Venefica and Susie magazines. Recently, her work was shown in New York City at The Cohen Library, Ideal Glass, and Chelsea Manna Gallery.
My work is informed by research into mythology and folklore. I am particularly interested in the symbolism of the serpent across cultures. I use imagery inspired by my research to represent unseen forces and liminal spaces. My previous series thematically represents the birth and development of our universe combining classical and contemporary science and philosophy, beginning with chaos and ending with humankind’s experience of the transcendental. I explored ideas of cosmology in both the scientific and mythological sense. I do not aim to represent any of my ideas in a literal, figurative sense, rather the aspatial and atemporal essence of a thing beyond its physical instance.
I am currently interested in examining the representation of Myth in post-Enlightenment art. I have noted the change in depictions of myth from cult objects to paintings for decorative and entertainment purposes. Much has been discussed regarding nude nymphs and goddesses and the male gaze. My current project seeks to present these figures as dangerous guardians of the natural world and other realms, as both gazers and actors. For example, in Waterhouse’s Hylas and the Nymphs (1896), the discourse presumes that the viewer identifies with Hylas, gazing at the nymphs, but what of the nymphean gaze? What would a representation of this myth look like where it is clear we are seeing a gang of doe-eyed murderesses, protecting their spring from humans trying to drink from it? I wish to reclaim their narrative power and to explore our relationship to the natural world, challenging human-centric narratives of sovereignty over an unfinished and wild world. I intend to deconstruct conventions of Neo-Classical art to return agency to both the natural world and the women who embodied it. I want to show both as being subjects and actors instead of objects and those being acted upon.
Rubedo
20 x 14 in.
gouache on paper
2020
20 x 14 in.
gouache on paper
2020
Into The Well
15 x 11 in.
gouache on paper
2020
15 x 11 in.
gouache on paper
2020
ll The Rivers In The World
20 x 14 in.
gouache on paper
2019
20 x 14 in.
gouache on paper
2019
She’s Not Looking Back At You
20 x 16 in.
acrylic on panel
2022
20 x 16 in.
acrylic on panel
2022
Sublunar Spirits
15 x 11 in.
gouache on paper
2021
15 x 11 in.
gouache on paper
2021