Local artist Lisa René, aka Pinky Rasta, works in acrylic and canvas as well as atypical mediums such as found-object sculpture, broken glass on canvas, and as a model for her own photography. An exhibition of her work is currently on display, through the month of May, at The Odditorium.
Even as Pinky — a Chicago native — develops her skill set (she’s worked with hair, trained in Chinese brush art and is writing a memoir), its apparent the she’s her own greatest creation. “I do Reiki and I’m a spiritual gangster. I’m into green smoothies healing and cleansing,” she writes to Xpress. “I had a car accident in ’91 in the snow and ice in Chicago … I lost my left leg and my right one is mangled and full of metal. I basically died and went into the light.” Not that Pinky has let those setbacks stop her: “My life has been a huge colorful roller coaster,” she writes. “I aim to inspire.”
That’s the central focus of the art show for which Pinky is still seeking a title. Ideas include “Beautiful disaster” and “I’m here and I’m queer.” Discussing the work she says, “The paintings are sexually charged. Some of them are just hearts and goddesses and spirals. … Some have Chinese fortunes on them [and] some of them have glitter and broken glass with Asian writing on it — that was my favorite plate [that] broke just in time for the show.”
The photographs in the exhibit, she writes, “are some of the first topless I’ve ever done” and have not been displayed before.
Meet Pinky at her show reception at The Odditorium on Saturday, May 23, 6-8 p.m.; view her work through the end of May.
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