Isabella K. Losskarn's large-scale pastel drawings untangle the mess of gender representation in media

Isabella K. Losskarn’s drawings take subtle but scorching critiques to sublime heights. Originally from Charlotte, North Carolina, but currently living in Asheville, she’s taken to using her large-scale pastel drawings to examine the negligent handling of gender discourses in mass media. In her “absurd still-life scenarios”, the gaudy flourishes of colour and detail are a deceptively incisive critique of the “absurd and repercussive nature of gender representations”. By accentuating these elements, she says that her work “ventures into the nonsensical and often pushes beyond the boundaries of hyperrealism”.

Evidently, there’s a lot going on under the hood of each piece. On the surface, her process involves layering “colour extensively on textured paper and then blending it together using my gloved hands and soft blending tools”. And by grounding her work in the “representational” and using “familiar imagery of pop-culture items”, she finds that she can “access viewer’s attentions and direct it towards contemporary gender issues”. Consequently, each piece functions as a “paused, zoomed-in and hyperbolised moment that acts as metaphors for a larger conversation on gender”.