Rachel Feinstein

Rachel Feinstein explores and challenges the concept of luxury in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Europe and its contemporary parallels through richly detailed sculptures and multipart installations. She synthesizes visual and societal opposites like romance and pornography, elegance and kitsch, and the marvelous and the banal to delve into issues of taste and desire.

Biography of Rachel Feinstein

Rachel Feinstein was born in Fort Defiance, Arizona, and grew up in Miami. She earned her BA in 1993 from Columbia University in New York, studying religion, philosophy, and studio art. During the same year, she attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine. Mentored by figures like Kiki Smith, Ursula von Rydingsvard, and Judy Pfaff, Feinstein discovered her passion for sculpture.

In 1994, Feinstein participated in various group shows in New York, including "Let the Artist Live!" at Exit Art, where she exhibited a large gingerbread house modeled after Sleeping Beauty’s castle and even slept inside it during the exhibition.

In 2000, Feinstein's work was featured in the initial edition of MoMA PS1's "Greater New York" exhibition. The following year, she held her debut solo exhibition at Marianne Boesky Gallery in New York. This show displayed large plaster and wood sculptures depicting lions, swans, angels, and waterfalls. Feinstein also transformed one of the galleries into an all-white Rococo-style salon, drawing inspiration from imperial palaces in Munich and Vienna. 

Between 2010 and 2011, Feinstein transformed the modernist interior of Lever House in New York into a wintry wonderland inspired by elements of Rococo and Gothic design. Drawing from Hans Christian Anderson’s "Snow Queen," she brought to life a gilded carriage, clusters of toy soldiers, arched alcoves housing characters from the tale, and exquisite architectural ruins painted onto floor-to-ceiling mirrors. In 2014, Feinstein's sculpture "Folly" was unveiled in New York’s Madison Square Park, marking Feinstein's debut in public art exhibitions in the United States.

Rachel Feinstein's first career retrospective, "Maiden, Mother, Crone" at the Jewish Museum in New York (2019–21), showcased three decades of her sculptures, paintings, and videos alongside a significant monograph. The exhibition, named after three pivotal stages in a woman’s life, delved into her explorations of masculinity and femininity, equilibrium, and precariousness.

In 2023, Feinstein's exhibition "Façade" at the SCAD Museum of Art in Savannah, Georgia, showcased her painted panoramas, large-scale sculptures, and wall reliefs in a multidimensional installation blurring the lines between reality and illusion.

Rachel Feinstein's Art Style

Rachel Feinstein explored spatial landscapes after observing her ornate sculptures reflected in her paintings on mirrors. She particularly focused on panoramas from the 1800s. Using discovered images, she crafted hybrid Arcadian landscapes printed on mirrored wallpaper. The inaugural piece in this series, "Panorama of Rome" (2012), adorned the elliptical gallery at Gagosian in Rome, offering visitors an impressionistic view of the city's surroundings.

In 2018, Feinstein created the "Secrets" series, featuring eight large-scale sculptures reimagining the Victoria's Secret "Angels." Additionally, she crafted ceramic sculptures inspired by Franz Anton Bustelli's Rococo commedia dell'arte figurines. Similar to her broader body of work, these pieces teeter on the edge between the theatrical and intricate, often verging on the grotesque. They transform into strangely erotic abstractions, hinting at the body through its absence.  

Debuting in 2022, the "Mirror" series consists of oil paintings on mirror supports inspired by sixteenth-century sculptural altarpieces. Drawing from the carved forms of these altarpieces, Feinstein purposely leaves her figures' eyes unpainted, inviting viewers to experience an eerie sense of merging with each painting.

Constructing fantastical, multidimensional environments is a core aspect of Rachel Feinstein's artistry. She prefers presenting her work in intricate interiors, often infusing Baroque elements into exhibition spaces, thereby complicating the interplay between sculpture and painting, positive and negative space. When viewed from specific angles, the sculptures appear flattened, while walls seemingly expand due to Feinstein's use of mirrors and wallpaper.