Angela West: Sweet Sixteen

Angela West: Sweet Sixteen - Portrait Photographs of Southern Women at Sixteen, February 9 – March 10, 2007 at Carl Hammer Gallery in Chicago, IL. "...In her current show at Carl Hammer, Sweet Sixteen, West backdrops her subjects with vintage wallpapers decorated with roses and gardenias. Using the flowers to an ironic effect, she offers a sharp visual riposte to the romantic associations between young women and the blossoming of delicate, voiceless femininity. West’s portraits tread a fine line between painful, humorous and poignant. Dressed in grown-up gowns and wearing fragile gold jewelry, the teenagers in her Carl Hammer exhibition are all on the borderline between girl and woman. Some are just more convincing than others at masking their discomfort with that transition. The hunched shoulders, arms crossed defensively across bodies and exposed, vulnerable expressions convincingly convey the excruciating self-consciousness of adolescence. But for every frightened rabbit gaze there are the self-possessed beauties who have made peace with their sexuality."