Eugene Weekly : Arts Shorts : 7.14.11

 

Queen of the Quotidian

The Twins

Ila Rose Kriegh does a little bit of everything. Her work spans the media of painting, drawing, comic book illustration, murals, tattoo design and animation. Oh, she also happens to be the guitarist and ukulele player for folk band The Bad Mitten Orchestre ã she keeps busy.

It is hard to focus on any one medium of an artist as multi-faceted as Kriegh, though the work she refers to on her website (ilarose.com) as “hodgepodge” is quite an interesting nod to the Art Nouveau period of the early 1900s. A movement characterized by curvilinear lines and organic subject matter, Art Nouveau began as a reaction to the academic art of the 19th century. Krieghs ability to create quotidian works, redefining utilitarian objects such as chairs, tables or guitars as canvases for her visual artwork, is both intriguing and extraordinary.

Garish, beautiful, dark, surreal and ultra-realist, Krieghs multi-pronged repertoire of paintings pulls the viewer into a parallel world not dissimilar to the aesthetics of Frida Kahlo or Alphonse Mucha. She channels just the right amount of inimitable eeriness and raw talent needed to break through in the local independent art scene, and she possesses the one trait that cannot be manufactured: a prolific drive.

Ila Rose Kriegs artwork is on display at Cowfish through the rest of July. ã Dante Zu¿iga-West