Elaine Kaufmann
Primary Medium: Drawing
Other media: Photography, Mixed media
Elaine Kaufmann Studio
Website: http://www.elainekaufmann.net
Artist Statement
My work examines contemporary media in order to comment on social concerns. By appropriating images and texts, I seek to expose the ways in which newspapers and magazines disguise an unspoken agenda. I reconfigure these found elements, juxtaposing them to reveal issues connected to power and taste.
For each image in the drawing series International Design, I incorporate text taken from articles about homes. In place of the original image of luxury, I substitute an image of housing in the Third World. The text does describe the image but in a way that the article's focus on wealth is revealed as problematic. This project began after I read several books about the billion people who live in slums around the world at the same time that I was seeing articles in the New York Times like "The Allure of Buying Your Own Private Island." This project highlights how the media imagines expensive housing to be normal rather than extraordinary.
Other media: Photography, Mixed media
Elaine Kaufmann Studio
Website: http://www.elainekaufmann.net
Artist Statement
My work examines contemporary media in order to comment on social concerns. By appropriating images and texts, I seek to expose the ways in which newspapers and magazines disguise an unspoken agenda. I reconfigure these found elements, juxtaposing them to reveal issues connected to power and taste.
For each image in the drawing series International Design, I incorporate text taken from articles about homes. In place of the original image of luxury, I substitute an image of housing in the Third World. The text does describe the image but in a way that the article's focus on wealth is revealed as problematic. This project began after I read several books about the billion people who live in slums around the world at the same time that I was seeing articles in the New York Times like "The Allure of Buying Your Own Private Island." This project highlights how the media imagines expensive housing to be normal rather than extraordinary.
Selected Works
|  The Greatest Pleasure - 2008 - Pencil on paper - 12 x 9.5"  The Greatest Pleasure (detail) - 2008 - Pencil on paper - 12 x 9.5" The appropriated text states, in part, "'Looking around is the greatest pleasure' ... The pitch of the roofs is attractively shallow, and their wooden shingles weather well, having acquired an antique patina in a very brief time."  American Empire - 2008 - Pencil on paper - 12 x 9.5" The caption of the image states, "Until the right bed comes along, a mattress is made up on the floor of this otherwise quite grand bedroom. The American Empire chest (with a bonnet drawer!) was made in New York City, circa 1830."  American Empire (detail) - 2008 - Pencil on paper - 12 x 9.5"  Kid-Centric Condos - 2007 - Pencil on paper - 12 x 9.5"  Paradise Bought - 2006 - Pencil on paper - 12 x 9.5"  Toyota Wonderwagon (from "Minivan") - 2006 - Digital photograph - 9.5 x 4.75"  Dodge Caravan (from "Minivan") - 2006 - Digital photograph - 9.5 x 4.75"  Mercury Villager (from "Minivan") - 2006 - Digital photograph - 9.5 x 4.75"  Toyota Previa (from "Minivan") - 2006 - Digital photograph - 9.5 x 4.75" |
Artist Bio
Elaine Kaufmann is an artist who lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. She received an M.F.A. in Painting from Hunter College in 2004 and an M.A. in English Literature from San Francisco State University in 1998. She has also studied at the Frank Mohr Instituut in Groningen, Netherlands.
Kaufmann's work examines contemporary media in order to comment on social phenomena. By appropriating images and texts, she seeks to expose the ways in which newspapers and magazines disguise an unspoken agenda. Her work has been shown in a range of galleries and museums, including the Bronx Museum of the Arts, the Brooklyn Museum, Momenta Art, Schroeder Romero Gallery, and Rotunda Gallery. She also has an ongoing interest in challenging the political structure of the art world and has pursued alternative venues including cable access television, activist public interventions, and the Internet.
Kaufmann was awarded an Artist in the Marketplace (AIM) residency from the Bronx Museum and an Independent Project Grant from Artists Space. In 2007, a collaborative project, Brainstormers, was awarded a grant from the Puffin Foundation.