Graciano's work is an investigated series in which dark humor and the technology of painting is used to explore the projection of subliminal messages that are rendered inescapable in the media; for instance using sex to sell.

She brings across a blunt, distanced evocation of popular culture elevating it to art status in a series of work leading to abstract still life, exploring the links that overlap “need verses desire”, “sex verses procreation” and “man verses woman”.

Constraining the use of metaphors, puns and simulacra, Graciano incorporates the raw and the cooked; suggestion of the hunter and gatherer to examine sexual and fetish taboos, for instance binding and incorporating food in her practice. Controlled in her attempts to resurrect Still Life and the everyday object, her practice examines the three cultural aspects of the genre Rhopography, Abundance and the Feminine space of which unfolds the interfaces within a household interior, domain of signs, and contained systems.

Gracianos’ ambiguous implications adopt senses of illusion and un-familiarization to the viewer. Challenging landscape, portraiture, and historical adaptations in which is deemed still life as a lesser genre. This construction of Graciano's medium is a visceral language of expression created in a space of inhabitance.

Copyright © 2011 Leah Jeniece Graciano, All rights reserved.