Lois Silver | Topsy Turvy

Lois Silver creates vibrant narrative paintings that often depict emotive social encounters between animated characters at parties, musical performances, diners, and in outdoor environments.  At times jubilant, other times subdued or curious, her paintings portray private and personal entanglements that create visual tension between her characters. Other scenes are focused on solitary figures engrossed in highly personal moments of triumph, deep thought or isolation. Lois Silver’s signature sense of humor is well represented. Many of her characters can be observed in humorous cheeky acts, such as feeding the dog under the table, in “No Dogs Allowed.”

These dynamic, yet personal tableaux are influenced by the artist’s love of cinema. She often captures her figures in a specific moment of drama, mid-pose as if they are in a frame still of a movie. Silver is a master of capturing gestural mannerisms, a practice that is informed by her professional experience as a courtroom artist. Silver states, “This causes me to look at people differently and focus my attention on how character is revealed through body language and the quick gesture.”