Carly Silverman: Grand Voyage

CARLY SILVERMAN
Grand Voyage, 2023
Oil on canvas
16” x 16”

©Carly Silverman

CARLY SILVERMAN explores femininity within contemporary city life. Engaging with the work, viewers experience both feelings of familiarity and uncertainty. The images are relatable to modern women, however they seem to feel not quite right, as if to exist in a dream-like state. Addressing the familiar aspect, the subject matter captures brief moments in time experienced by all women: the intimacy of two friends conversing as the world unfolds around them; a woman’s confidence exuding through her gait; a break as a reprieve from the heat of the city in the summer. These moments are often overlooked due to the omnipresence of technology, disconnecting one’s casual observations from everyday life. The work also invokes uncertainty. The subject is often in an indiscernible location, rendered against an abstracted background. The context is unclear as the work only depicts a moment in time. Obscured faces lend to the feeling of anonymity, as when one takes a fleeting glance at a stranger. The result is an ambiguous feeling. The subjects seem simultaneously friendly but distant, familiar but unknown, and clear but unintelligible.

CARLY SILVERMAN grew up in Baltimore, Maryland, lives and works in Jersey City, NJ. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting from the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in 2006 and later received her Master of Fine Arts in painting at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) in 2011.