Vicky Steckel’s practice is collaboration between herself and her subject – a performance between two kindred spirits resulting in rich, dynamic and textural photographic portraits of women. Vicky started as a make-up artist learning and collaborating with top icons in the fashion industry, and expanded her repertoire of image making into visually striking and multidisciplinary arts practice.
Steckel’s work is a bold and mesmerising fusion of painting, performance and photography. The subjects are fully painted and their bodies shift between a living canvas and colour palette as they move about the space, often against staged backdrops, fabric and props. From the performance art to the final piece, Steckel brings to life an uninhibited, spirited and beautiful representation of the female form.Vicky Steckel currently lives and works in New York City and is represented by Trotta-Bono Contemporary.
Artist statement:
As a way to challenge my art practice I began exploring painting beyond the model’s face. Being trained as a makeup artist my canvas has always been human hence my artworks take flight in the live model’s skin, from hair to toes, I cover them in fluid paint. Paint that is dynamically changing. I document each stage with photography and video, the tools I use as an archiving technique than then become individual artworks. Throughout the years, I have incorporated as artworks, props I use for staging like the canvas backdrop and the accessories used on the models. These are also painted in ever-changing colour and texture.
“There is love and being human, no separation.”
My latest body of work is a look within my own life experiences taking the chosen palettes from the colors in the sky I view from my studio window. I am inspired by nature and body lines, I am driven by a celebration of the human body as the ultimate sacred vessel.
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