Journie Cirdain’s large allegorical drawings exist at the intersection of the human and animal, internal and external, magic and reality, and ultimately, life and death. She meticulously renders moments of tension between the human and non-human, reimagining art historical subjects (still lives, nudes, and luxury items) as living participants in an enmeshed environment. With a film director’s focus on drama and a romantic flirtation with the macabre, her drawings betray an exquisite attention to light surface as a chandelier becomes an environment for cobwebs; a spiderweb glistens like crystal; a bouquet hangs next to the site of its extraction; an environment shows beheaded tulips. Her drawings engage with ideas about living and dying as entangled beings.
Journie Nikala Cirdain (born 1993, Santa Rosa, CA) has shown in exhibitions nationally and internationally, including The Green Gallery in Milwaukee, Elmhurst Art Museum in Illinois, A Gallery in Seattle, and in Chicago at Goldfinch and Patient Info. Her work has written about in Hyperallergic, New City and Chicago Reader and her writing has appeared in Chicago Artist Writers and FNEWS Magazine. Cirdain received an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2022 where she was the recipient of the New Artist Society full merit scholarship. She lives and works in Queens, NY.