Michael Rosenthal Gallery

To create her large-scale portraits, Cortson collects dust– her signature material– from her subject’s home, and then uses it as the primary medium in the rendering of the painting’s background. The dust– which is composed of approximately 70% human hair & skin cells and takes about three months to collect via vacuum bag– is delicately adhered to the canvas in layers, using both liquid and spray glue.

In juxtaposition to the nuanced ghostliness of the dust-rendered background, Cortson paints her figures in lively, vibrant oils. With this purposeful technique, the artist boldly establishes the human subject as the living occupant of a more ephemeral, illusive world– a world that is both informed by and created out of the inhabitant’s matter.