Oda Jaune's Visceral Paintings Dissect Body and Soul

Oda Jaune's work explores the human body inside and out, revealing what lies beneath the skin. Her paintings blend figuration and fantasy, violence and grace, often depicting organs emerging from bodies in an aestheticized manner. In a recent large painting, an assemblage of pink, whitish, purplish, and brown forms resembles hearts, lungs, and livers, yet evokes curiosity rather than disgust. The artist seeks to paint the color of rain, sea, sky, and clouds, aiming for a moiré, undulating effect like porcelain. The organic mass rests on the bust and face of a couple—a woman seated on a man's knee, dressed for their wedding day. In 'For All to See' (2010), a body without beginning or end appears in chiaroscuro, like a twisted tree trunk, depicting the slow disappearance of the body. The painting references Rembrandt's 'The Anatomy Lesson' (1632) and 'Slaughtered Ox' (1655), using dissection to bring depth to the surface. Jaune never works from models to avoid being caught by reality; instead, she uses moving images and internet-sourced pictures. Watercolors capture fleeting visions in a single day, while oil paintings delve deeper. 'Wonderful' (2010) presents a vertical mouth opening onto a rosy cavity—a female sex organ depicted as a face, recalling Hans Bellmer's 'Petite Anatomy of the Image'. Jaune seeks to reconcile opposites, using the kiss as a principle of communion. She believes in goodness, and her work reveals human beauty in pain and tenderness.