Josie Tolliver Shaw

The Cake Cutters II

2023

Josie Tolliver shaw paints confrontational portraits with the intention of reclaiming female sociability through my female gaze. In the history of painting, women have been depicted almost entirely by men from a physical and intellectual distance. She paints women she knows well, in environments that are products of her imagination, but reference environments that have made impressions on her. As a woman painting women close to her, Shaw's work offers a corrective by closing that distance. She uses scenic painting to create a matriarchal utopia and portray the integrity of female relationships. Harnessing her perspective as a lesbian woman and sharing that point of view with the viewer through scenic portraiture. Shaw's use of ornamentation, bright colors, and female sociability purvey an alternative narrative to the viewer, one that is rid of patriarchal standards.