Adonna Khaare

Hollis Taggart Galleries’ upcoming exhibition Adonna Khare will explore the work of an artist celebrated as much for her astounding draftsmanship as for her intriguing and fantastical imagination. Khare’s artistic focus is the wild animal, however the contexts in which she places these creatures are anything but natural. The captivating protagonists of Khare’s drawings are depicted in a realm that exists somewhere between fantasy and an often unsettling reality.

Khare’s meticulous depictions of animals are reminiscent of scientific reference illustrations. Each hair, scale, and feather is finely rendered with masterful definition and care.  Khare’s precise technique creates a convincing pictorial space, the reality of which is undone by the inclusion of objects and creatures that appear deeply out of place. Teacups, pocket watches, skulls, and laundry lines all find themselves amongst Khares’s animal creations, which are hauntingly presented as half human, contorted or miniaturized. It is through such dichotomy of technique and subject that Khare formulates the strikingly surreal character of her drawings.  There is also a very human aspect at play in these intricate works. The drawings foster the potential to appear at once as uncanny and moving, it is this tension that instills them with energy. Essentially concerned with basic human experience as subject, Khare utilizes the animals as representatives of her own life experiences, and as a channel through which the viewer might associate their own. Prior to the exhibition, Khare will be working in the gallery extending her drawings beyond the confines of the paper and onto the gallery walls. 

Adonna Khare is an American carbon-pencil artist, who has gained recognition in recent years for her large scale, fantastical pencil drawings. Khare received her formal arts training in California where she continues to live and work. In 2012 the artist was the winner of ArtPrize, the world’s most attended public art event.