Alexandra Rubinstein

Alexandra Rubinstein is a contemporary artist based in Brooklyn, New York.[1] She is known to use oil paints as her medium.[1] Her works involve feminist narratives in relation to the current third-wave feminism movement. Her paintings gained attention from the depiction of celebrities such as Drake and Barack Obama performing oral sex on women.

Early life

Rubinstein was born in 1988 in Sverdlovsk, USSR, currently Yekaterinburg, Russia. Her mother is Russian and her father is Jewish.[1]The family was given asylum after ten years.[1] They came to the United States illegally in 1997 and moved to Pittsburgh.[1] Rubinstein showed an interest in art when she was in high school and took art courses at Carnegie Mellon University.[1]

Education

Rubinstein earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at Carnegie Mellon University.[1] After graduating, she moved to New York City to pursue a career in art.[1]

Artistic career

Rubinstein works out of her studio in Brooklyn, New York. Her works mainly consist of realistic oil paintings and have been shown in small-scale exhibitions around the United States.

Looking for Mr. Goodsex (2013)

This large series of oil paintings created by Rubinstein are still images taken from vintage pornographic films from the 80s, when the pornographic film called "Deep Throat" was released.[2] The frames highlighted women's faces during sex, which is uncommon at the time. It depicted the lack of relevance and emphasis on woman in videos and films.[2] The series of paintings then branched out into stills of men and women kissing to show vulnerability and nature of sexual pleasure and romance.[2]

Celebrity Cunnilingus (2014)

This series is oil paintings of a variety of male celebrities during coitus. These celebrities include Justin Bieber, Ryan Gosling, Leonardo DiCaprio, James Franco and Barack Obama. The paintings were portrayed from a female perspective.[3] Rubinstein wanted to empower women in these pieces and at the same time showed their portrayal of pleasure.[4] The artist created this series after realizing there was a real lack of focus on women in pornography.[5] Rubinstein figuratively included herself in a lot of her works, especially this series, to tells a story.[6]

Thirsty (2015)

This series focused on heterosexual female sexuality through oil on panel images of 1970s male porn stars. This aimed to turn the art world around by making women the consumer of nude male imagery rather than women being the object that is consumed.[7] The paintings use the bottle opener to mimic the usual decorative use of the female form and the men are made into objects of ‘thirst’ that comes after a beer.[8] The imagery promotes the idea that women are independent and they too can have a beer, which is stereotypically a male beverage.[7]

Hands off my Cuntry (January 11, 2017)

This exhibition was curated by Savannah Spirit and displayed at the Undercurrent Projects in New York City.[9] This show was featured in Spirit's HOTTER THAN JULY series and was specifically displayed a week before Donald Trump's inauguration.[9] The entire show is a collection of art that focus on erotic imagery and was chosen to poke fun at Trump's rightwing cabinet.[9] 12 different artists contributed their art to the exhibition and 20 percent of the profits from the show went towards Planned Parenthood.[9] This show, like many in the past, focused on the celebration of female sexuality in a playful and often a provocative manner.

This exhibition gained Rubinstein a lot of publicity because of her well-known painting called "Thanks Obama" (2016, oil-on-panel) that was used on the posters and flyers for the event.[9] The image is a photo-realistic painting of Barack Obama smiling and about to perform cunnilingus on a faceless woman. The show received a lot of backlash, particularly Rubinstein's painting because they were deemed "offensive and disrespectful".[9] One of Rubinstein's paintings from her Thirsty series was also featured in the exhibition. The show's focus on erotica captured people's attention and bought people into the exhibition. Rubinstein's works are of erotic nature and the imagery she created brings attention to what she believes in.

Style

Rubinstein's style is contemporary in choice of subject and message of the art. The oil-on-panel helps create authenticity of human figures in her paintings and the puns in the titles helps convey her message.

Reception

Some art critics have found Rubinstein's works offensive or revealing. Liberal mainstream media sources, such as BuzzFeed, praised her works for her use of famous celebrities and not for her representation of female empowerment.[10][11]

References
    1. "Artist Profile". agdir.org. Retrieved November 20, 2018.
    2. "Paintings by Alexandra Rubinstein". Juxtapoz Magazine. June 17, 2015. Retrieved November 20, 2018.
    3. McVey, Kurt (January 11, 2017). "New York City Artist And Curator Savannah Spirit Unveils Salacious New Exhibit". Forbes. Retrieved November 20, 2018.
    4. Lui, Elaine. "Why More Women Need to Talk about Getting Head." Flare, Winter 2016, 54–55.
    5. GQ (October 31, 2016). "Celebrity Cunnilingus: Drake, Justin Bieber and Leo DiCaprio as you've never seen them before". Retrieved November 20, 2018.
    6. McVey, Kurt. "New York City Artist And Curator Savannah Spirit Unveils Salacious New Exhibit." Forbes. January 11, 2017. Retrieved October 20, 2018. https://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtmcvey/2017/01/11/nyc-artist-and-curator-savannah-spirit-wants-to-trigger-your-trump/#4d56386c328d.
    7. Felix, Annie (October 24, 2016). "The Art of Thirst: Alexandra Rubinstein and Loud Female Sexuality". PAPER. Retrieved November 20, 2018.
    8. Felix, Annie (October 24, 2016). "The Art of Thirst: Alexandra Rubinstein and Loud Female Sexuality". PAPER. Retrieved November 20, 2018.
    9. Sisley, Dominique (January 12, 2017). "The erotic art show taking on Donald Trump". Dazed. Retrieved November 20, 2018.
    10. Gerstein, Julie (November 4, 2016). "An Artist Painted A Bunch of Famous Celeb Men Going Down on Women And It's Really Something". BuzzFeed. Retrieved November 20, 2018.
    11. Glassman, Thea (November 1, 2016). "What's Leonardo DiCaprio Like in Bed? Feminist Jewish Artist Imagines Answer". The Forward. Retrieved November 20, 2018.
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