Cowgirls and Mermaids

Emma Hapner: Cowgirls & Mermaids at VillageOneArt explores unbridled feminine power through the lens of contemporary realism. Hapner points to the agency of owning feminine identity in making work, as she “embraces the color pink as a symbol of unapologetic femininity.” Hapner creates striking portraits of powerful female figures embracing their inner confidence in a swirl of pink, saturated sunset hues. In her detail-oriented compositions, Hapner projects the self-assured woman who understands her place in the world. These paintings play with the duality of softness and attitude, utilizing the conduit of imagery embedded within the masculine archetype of the cowboy of the Wild West in order to embody this tension between beauty and sexual power. As the artist notes, embodying each of these qualities “...does not detract from the other.”

Engaging aspects of fantasy and storytelling present in works such as those created by photographer David LaChapelle or artist Nina Chanel Abney, Hapner’s compositions gracefully navigate beauty as a means of protection and empowerment in a game of dress-up disguising play as power. Viewers of Hapner’s work are invited to dive into possibilities present just beneath the picture plane to unleash aspects of our identity present in the realm of fantasy.