Portraits of Pain

Location Info

Map

Loved to Death

1681 Haight (at Belvedere)
San Francisco, CA 94117

Category: Galleries

Region: Haight/ Fillmore

Photos

0 user reviews	Write A Review
Save to foursquare	0

Related Content

• The Lowbrow Art Sale: H.R. Giger, Jonathan Weiner & Natalie Shau
  April 22, 2008
• The Lowbrow Art Sale: Tara McPherson, Scott Campbell & Chris Ryniak
  May 27, 2008

More About

• Arabella Proffer

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Events Newsletter: What's happening in town? From underground club nights to the biggest outdoor festivals, our top picks for the week's best events will always keep you in on the action.

Privacy Policy Cancel Continue

“After having a section of my leg removed, I began researching medicine from the Middle Ages through the 18th century.” That remark alone in Arabella Proffer’s artist statement would be enough to get us to her exhibit. Nonetheless, we kept reading. We found that Proffer was an established artist when she was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer that led to the surgery. Her research revealed the state of pre-modern medicine: pretty bad. Regardless of how “rich, important, or beautiful” you were, she says, if you were sick, you’d still get treatment that was “brutal or worthless.” So Proffer turned her fear and anger into the exhibit “Ephemeral Antidotes.” In it, she deals in brightly colored and realistically rendered oil-painted portraits — specifically ones that incorporate medical superstitions and practices. In Violets for Heart Veins, a purple-haired woman holds open an elaborate coat to reveal a hole in her chest, ringed by violets and showing her heart and blood vessels. It has the look of a religious icon. In Skin of the Fox Cures the Pox, a serpentine blue fox drapes itself over the shoulders of a woman and looks directly at the viewer. Proffer has penned a biography for each woman in her portraits, “highlighting both the fascinating and the horrifying aspects of old medicine.” We suspect it’s much like her own experience.
Sat., Jan. 7, 8 p.m., 2012