Most of the work from Vogel exhibited here pertains to undines: "liquid women", bewitching and tragic. Several paintings deal more specifically with a quintessential theme of romantic symbolism, the drowning Ophelia.
Vogel's postmodern reexamination of the opheliac disappearance introduces subtle and complex nuances in the representation of feminity: Ophelia doesn't drown, she withdraws from us.
This feminity with an attitude is very different from the symbolist's victimized staging of feminity. Two antithetical avix cross each other to revisit the undine semiotic space. On a first dichotomy, the overexposed body contrasts with the thick darkness of the sleeping waters. On a second one, more complex, the ostentatious disclosure of nudity clashes with the dismissive looks of the women. Contrived stances and cold indifference work in two conflicting and irreconcilable directions. The painter's "manner" further emphasizes this duality. The meticulous execution, lavishly exposing the corporal envelop in utmost details, is balanced by the subtle body language of emotions, all expressed by minute nuances of posture, looks and pouts.
As a result, this whole sphere of antithetical feelings renews from top to bottom the foundation of the symbolist universe. Symbolists staged the sublime of the missing Ophelia, where Vogel experiments with the oxymoron of her withdrawal and glaring presence.

NATHALIE VOGEL

Lives and works in NJ and Toronto.