Nicole Eisenman is an American artist who works in a variety of mediums from sculpture to prints and paintings. She explores a range of political issues in her work but tries to stay current, starting with works about homosexuality and then moving into topics like racial, class and gender inequalities. She makes a point of saying she tired of one-off political jokes in the early 2000s, but satire definitely remains a part of her contemporary pieces.

Coping, 2008

One of the most striking parts of Eisenman's work is the sense of community created by her diverse casts of characters. Imaginative abstractions appear alongside the artist herself and her friends, this living world of individuals and caricatures coming strangely close to a realistic representation how people experience their surroundings; some things are peripheral, others familiar, and still others are fascinatingly weird unknowns.

"There is no set way to deal with a question as broad and deep as identity and I don’t want to limit myself to any one way of painting. Sometimes figures are clearly defined, sometimes it’s ambiguous or the question simply evaporates. I’d like to tap into a universal human experience but know there’s no such thing; we all experience the world differently. When gender and race are eliminated, something else is left to see; other connections are made between the figures and their worlds."

Little Shaver, 2005

To Eisenman, her paintings are only pieces serving a larger community of artists who all contribute their unique views to humanity, views that she herself wishes to express but can't figure out how to paint. 

"The over abundance of disposable and meaningless images gives oil painting more value. It’s shocking to go to a museum now and be reminded of the power a painting can have after surfing the Internet all day... It’s the realization that you’re not just looking at a painting, say, by Van Gogh, but that one can actually commune with his spirit, just by looking, and time collapses."

Commerce Feeds Creativity, 2004

Eisenman's skill as a painter shows in her vivid colors, clean rendering and versatile style. But I find her ideas just as if not more inspiring than her punchy visuals. These are images that you want to decode and investigate for extra narrative details.

Ketchup & Mustard War, 2005