Through her embroideries, Australian artist Cayce Zavaglia sews very beautiful portraits which she shows them the other face to reveal what’s hiding behind the perfect face of a person. Initially painter, Zavaglia wanted to show that the other side of an embroidery looks like an abstract painting with tons of chaotic threads. Her work explains that behind each flat surface, there’s a more complex face, like the identity and the psychology of her characters. She’s currently exhibited at the Lyons Wier Gallery in New York. “I was originally trained as a painter, but switched to embroidery 12 years ago in an attempt to establish a non-toxic studio and create a body of work that referenced an embroidered piece I had made as a child growing up in Australia. My work focuses exclusively on the portraits of friends, family, and fellow artists. The gaze of the portrait toward the viewer has remained constant over the years and in my work…as has my search for a narrative based on both faces and facture. The work is all hand sewn using cotton and silk thread or crewel embroidery wool. From a distance they read as hyper-realistic paintings, and only after closer inspection does the work’s true construction reveal itself.” – Cayce Zavaglia. For more information, do not hesitate to visit the links below.
