Biography

​

Tracy Cirves earned an MFA from Yale University in 2010 and her BFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2008. Her work explores the relationships and fiction of femininity, expressionism, artifice and authenticity. She lives in Mazomanie, WI.

​

These paintings are equally planned and improvised. The female gaze is an important aspect of the work within a framework of the artist's female gaze as painter, subject and muse. Referencing historical influences of male modern painters, Cirves looks outward and  inward to come to  terms with images and cliches of femininity and how her identity has been shaped by these. These paintings result from observations and reflections to create real and made up narratives. Heartbreaks, romance of woman in isolation, girls with their pets, trends of green smoothies, stories that have moved her, trends on social media, events in the artist's own life and upbringing, or things that she choose to possibly make up about herself become subjects. The paintings are subtle and introverted.  The paint invites the viewer into something personal yet simultaneously acts as a filter.