Rene Lynch "Cassandra Dilemma, Endangered"

Rene Lynch "Cassandra Dilemma, Endangered" 2021

Painting, Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 68 x 62 inches
Unique
Signed on Verso

Rene Lynch is a painter and graphite artist based in Brooklyn, New York, whose dreamlike realism explores the power of female archetypes in myth, fairytale, and society. Born in Decatur, Illinois, Lynch has exhibited nationally and internationally, including solo exhibitions in Germany, New York, Tokyo, and Osaka, as well as museum exhibitions at Galerie Kunstlade Museum, Haus der Kunst Contemporary Art Institute, Hunterdon Museum, the Museum of the City of New York, Katonah Museum of Art, PS1 Museum, and Virginia Museum of Fine Art.

Lynch studied painting and art history at Virginia Commonwealth University and Curatorial Studies through New York University’s Business of Art program. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Boston Globe, Art & Antiques, American Art Collector, and numerous other publications. She has received fellowships from P.S.1/Museum of Modern Art, Virginia Center for Creative Arts, Oberpfälzer Künstlerhaus, Millay Colony, Soaring Gardens, and other institutions, and has given artist talks at the Brooklyn Museum, Aldrich Museum, Hunterdon Museum, Sotheby’s, and numerous galleries and universities. Her work is held in public and private collections internationally.

Artist Statement

"I am a figurative painter of dreamlike images that reinvent myths and fairytales from a feminist and environmental perspective reinvigorating archetypal stories with resonance to our contemporary lives. My psychological works are imbued with a sensitivity to our complex human relationship with Nature and its phenomena. In various series throughout my career I have confronted the stages of a woman’s life and of Nature’s cycles of fecundity and decay, power and vulnerability.

My painting “Cassandra Dilemma, Endangered” is from my series addressing environmental collapse. In ancient mythology Cassandra was gifted by the gods the ability to see the future and to warn of impending disaster, but she was simultaneously cursed by the fact that no one believed her. In climate science, the term Cassandra Dilemma refers to the irony that many people still disbelieve environmentalists despite the decades of warnings about climate catastrophe. “Endangered” depicts Cassandra as one with a dream-like rainforest surrounded by a multitude of flora and sentient fauna. Inspired by my trips to the still wild Corcovado in Costa Rico it is a celebration of the wonder and beauty of the natural world and all we are at risk of losing." - Rene Lynch