SPOKE SF is proud to present Four Dames - a group exhibition featuring new works by San Francisco-based artists Eliza Ivanova, Nadezda, Karla Ortiz and Ximena Rendon. This four- woman show is a dynamic and immersive experience filled with still-frames from each of the artists’ imagined worlds - populated by mystical and macabre characters and narratives.

Exhibiting a mastery of each of their materials, anatomy and classical training, each dame has created darkly beautiful scenes of human expression and decay imbued with a sense of mystery. A harmonious blend of traditional techniques and contemporary sensibilities have combined to create oil paintings and graphite drawings that are at once familiar and secretive belonging to each artists’ unique and imaginative realm.

Nadezda’s recent oil paintings are gesturally expressive in both her mark-making and the composition of her subjects. Her figures offer a veiled glimpse into her timeless narratives. Karla Ortiz’s delves deeper into her craft as a painter withe her new pieces, sharing a similarly un-placeable era with the other dames. Ortiz explores “capturing an aesthetic moment in time, as technically accurately and as beautifully as I can, while also expressing that which I cannot say in words."

Eliza Ivanova’s new drawings provide a counterpoint to the darker and dense works of her fellow dames with open white-space, yet still share a cabalistic sense with the accompanying work. Ivanova’s drawings create a tension between detailed renderings of human expression and the brevity of her composition. Ximena Rendon’s immaculately detailed oil on aluminum works explore death and mortality. Tendon’s with the surface materials direct reference to mortuary slabs.