The Name of the Rose (Snejana Onopka) I
Acrylic and emulsion on canvas
36" x 48"
2013
Acrylic and emulsion on canvas
36" x 48"
2013
Private collection
This painting is a key work from Collins' long-running "Model Citizens" series and one of the artist's personal favourites. Collins based the painting on a photograph of the iconic Ukrainian supermodel, Snejana Onopka, by German fashion photographer, Katja Rahlwes for Vogue Paris. However, Collins re-imagined the fashion spread in his signature restrained palette and high contrast style.
Collins' first portrait of Onopka marks a significant milestone in his artistic development. It was the first of Collins' artworks to be exhibited publicly. Uproar Interiors, an interior design studio in Ottawa's trendy Hintonburg neighbourhood, displayed the painting prominently in its storefront display to attract clients. Uproar Interiors is a specialist in Farrow & Ball paint and Collins painted this portrait with the brand's "Downpipe" colour in an exploration of softer uses of chiaroscuro.
This painting also features Collins' first use of non-acrylic paint. Collins began experimenting with domestic/ residential paints to explore colour and the dialog between art and architecture. He then found that the liquidity of house paint lent itself to his interest in increasingly detailed and nuanced compositions.
In pieces such as this one, the matte finish of the grey paint also pays tribute to the flat nature of the painting itself, in a nod to modern painting theory. Yet the print-like aesthetic, supported by Collins' extremely fine and controlled brushwork, exists in playful tension with the paint's allusions to modern notions of the medium's essential quality.
With "The Name of the Rose (Snejana Onopka) I", Collins moved decisively beyond the softer, hand-drawn, stencil-like style of his earlier pieces in the "Model Citizens" series. He embraced a significantly more detailed and complex composition. This departure from smaller, more gestural works reflects Collins pursuit of increasing deliberate and rich depictions of his subjects, which may be seen in more recent works.
