madeline camplese

In a cultural vision of ancien règime France, our courtly idea of wealth and opulence is scarcely complete without an imagined tablescape – dotted with the most vivid, delicate, ornate china one could conjure, only revealing the true splendour of its design when the endless mounds of wasted food finally make their way into royal mouths. Concealed beneath hours-worth of exotic dishes prepared, though, would have been the true pride of the feast’s host: their Manufacture nation

Auspiciously, graciously, in the Metropolitan Museum's Gallery 771, stands within a frame a nameless woman on a canvas nearly seven feet tall, her milky-pale profile, descending into her hourglass figure, bathed in an impossibly rich, deep black satin and velvet gown. Her torso confronts you, framed by delicate, beaded and jeweled straps trailing up her neck; her gaze, though, points to the right – knowing, remote, austere; her face is almost sculpted, molded, with its classi

Among a section of contemporary art previewed for their upcoming auction, Sotheby's holds Sam Gilliman's 1970 painting, Untitled. This piece, done in acrylic on canvas, sprawling 50 by 54 inches on the wall, boasts brilliant hues of aquamarines, magentas, and blues, splashing essences and vibrations of color across the painting itself. I was immediately drawn in by its Frankenthaleresque, subliminal feeling. I thought on first glance that it may have even been a Frankenthaler

In our digital world, we are saturated with hundreds upon thousands of images of women on a daily basis: advertisements, family photos, selfies, ad campaigns, influencer content, professional photography, amateur video editing; each one, in their own minutely different way, attempting to tell us a story about that woman. They attempt to make us feel, react, to pivot our behavior. Most, due to the sheer volume, we see and ignore. But each picture we consume in our lives is rep