Deborah Oropallo
Teardrop, 2016
Photomontage and acrylic on wood panel
58 x 48 inches
Edition of one

Acclaimed as one of the San Francisco Bay Area’s premier painters, Deborah Oropallo has created much of her work in recent years using state-of-the-art print techniques, delivering mixed-media print/painting hybrids that defy categorization. Continuing the exploration of power, gender, and costume begun in her Guise series, Oropallo’s 2016 works combine photomontage and layers of acrylic on wood panel to depict a cast of fragmented, fractured heroines. The inclusion of oil rigs floating in dark waters behind each figure (and the shiny wet droplets streaked across their surfaces) serves as a subtle reference to the motives of greed and profit that so often inform the machinations of contemporary power. -Nick Stone