donna anderson kam

Royal-T Exhibition
Culver City, California 2010
In Bed Together
group exhibition

(09-08) 6:47 PDT Antioch, CA (NBC) 2008
pastel and conté on paper
73.5 x 48 inches

Seldom have I seen contemporary work by an artist working in pastel--it seems like an oxymoron! The medium is fiendishly difficult but the results have such a fresh intensity. Kam works with live models and the poses she selects are ambiguous and slightly disturbing; I think of artists ranging from Eric Fischl to Philip Pearlstein as reference points. However, Kam's work has a certain "Mean Girls" quality that differentiates it. In a time when so many artists are working with provisional aesthetic, it's refreshing to see work by a contemporary artist who has mastered the craft of art-making.

Submission to the exhibition by:
Joanne Northrup: Katie and Drew Gibson Chief Curator, San Jose Museum of Art