Cringe: Portraits from the Pandemic by Isaac Peifer
Artist Statement
My use of portraiture is a commentary on the role notoriety, disgrace, and “cringe” increasingly play in capturing public interest (however briefly) in the digital age, where older forms of aspirational celebrity and cultural relevance have been edged out in the “attention economy” by the unruly, carnivalesque spectacle of memetics and “virality.”
The stature of traditional celebrity was particularly embarrassed during the pandemic when the lifestyles of the fabulously wealthy were thrown into sharp relief against the misery of ordinary people, who more than ever relied on social media for a sense of connection to the “outside world.” It was also during this time that most of these portraits were painted.
As demanded by the speed and ephemeral nature of this process I seek to document, most of my portraits are painted in one sitting, with little planning and only a small image on my iPhone to guide the emergence of grotesque semblances.
Isaac Peifer is a painter living and working in Manhattan. He is self-taught, having made his first painting toward the end of 2019, an activity that would mercifully keep him busy throughout the doldrums of quarantine. You may have seen some of his paintings go viral on Twitter, where he goes by the handle @ass_dentata.