Wendy S. Rolfe paints opulent, fantastical vignettes on curved panels that feel baroque and surreal at once. She often includes little quotes or messages in them as well, which makes the experience of viewing them even more like a discovery - or like decoding some sort of richly designed riddle. You can see her work in person now at Tria Gallery in NYC alongside Holly Sears in their two person show "Dream Awake." It's up until March 6th, so be sure to check it out. -Phantasmaphile Art, Culture, Mirabilia
Wendy Rolfe juggles reverence and irreverence in paintings constructed to suggest portable altars. Dealing seriously with creation myths, nature, the cosmos, spirituality and art, Rolfe nevertheless maintains a light, wry, mischievous touch in her imagery. In “Natural Meditation,” a figure with the upper body of a Madonna by Giotto is given the shapely legs of Botticelli’s “Venus,” painted bright green and entwined with a human-headed serpent. Her bare-chested consort looks like Ulysses in a painting by Primaticcio, another Italian old master. Rolfe appropriates more than art historical imagery as she also mingles contrasting styles, from the highly finished to the faux-naive, in the same painting. These and other unexpected twists in her work make it fresh and visually rich.
-Marie Louise Kane Des Moines Register
