Tracy Cirves

Currently living and working in Wisconsin. My work explores the relationships and fiction of femininity, expressionism, artifice and authenticity.


Artist Statement:

My work explores the relationships of fiction, expressionism, tropes of femininity, artifice and authenticity mostly through narrative portraits .My paintings are as planned as they are improvisational. I often look back on historical influences of male modern painters. My paintings are results of observations and reflections to create real and made up narratives. Depicting heartbreaks, romance of woman in isolation, girls with their pets, trends of green smoothies, stories that have moved me, trends on social media, events in my own life, my upbringing, or things that I choose to possibly make up about myself.
The paintings are subtle and introverted.  The paint invites the viewer into something personal yet simultaneously acts as a filter.

2008 BFA University of Wisconsin, Madison

2010 MFA Yale University

INVITATIONAL AND SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2011 Solo Show, Lavender Longings, July 15 – September 10, Portrait Society, Milwaukee, WI
2010 MFA Thesis Exhibition, Yale School of Art, New Haven CT
2009 Second Year Summer Show, Yale School of Art, New Haven CT
2008 First Year Show, Yale School of Art, New Haven CT 
2006 First Annual Art Student Invitational, State Street Gallery, Madison, WI

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2018 Homely, Portrait Society Gallery, Milwaukee WI
2018 Circular, Bg Gallery, Santa Monica CA
2017 Great Expectations, Steenbock Gallery, Madison WI
2017 Figuration Now, Portrait Society, Milwaukee, WI
2007 7131, The Seventh Floor Gallery, Madison, WI 
2007 Introducing Tracy Cirves, Tory Folliard Gallery, Milwaukee, WI 
2006 Paintings From the Future, The Seventh Floor Gallery, Madison WI
2006 Color Matters, The Seventh Floor Gallery, Madison, WI