If I were to take a picture of any of Hannah Paz-Westbrook’s pieces in her new show Enamoiré at the Harrison Center, it would do the work no justice. Her signature painting style uses layers of translucent fabric to create a strange visual effect—moiré, to be exact. This effect on the human eye is difficult to translate to a camera. The only way I can think to describe it is if you were to take a picture of a computer screen. The rippling effect her work undergoes is part of the experience.

*webs of co-created space*
Hannah Paz-Westbrook
oil on canvas, fabric
36” x 45”

Is there anything more frustrating than artwork that can’t be photographed? It feels so opposite to the way we go about marketing ourselves as artists. This isn’t to say that Paz-Westbrook doesn’t utilize the digital world (her Instagram is a colorful vortex of colors and trippy visuals); it’s just that her work requires you to see it in person to have its full effect on you. Paz-Westbrook is aware of how elusive her style is. In fact, like any artist, there are deeper reasons behind the scenes for what she is doing. She identifies the faces and forms woven through her canvases to be individuals who identify as marginalized: multiracial, queer, having a visible or invisible disability, etc. When Paz-Westbrook sent a call for models, she explicitly wanted individuals who felt unseen by their communities. In her artist statement for the show, she asks, “what does it mean to be seen as multifaceted humans in a time when screens have made it easier to reduce people to their most basic labels?”

*transparensee the only cure*
Hannah Paz-Westbrook
oil on canvas, screen, thread
52” x 70”

Paz-Westbrook creates on large canvases—most of which have figurative or portrait elements. Others are emptier, meditative, and it can be hard to make out what’s going on. Interestingly, these have become some of the most impactful to me. They remind me of white noise: calming expanses of color and blurriness where lines wander. Contemporary artists often excel at moments of minimalism in ways that traditional artists never did. Maybe artists of old didn’t have to—since the over-saturation of visual media was less of a problem back then. These days we feel overwhelmed: by industry, by technology, by visuals and color. Contemporary artists like Paz-Westbrook have the opportunity to create impact through what they don’t do, just as much as by what they make.

*cosmic mutter now static whispers*
Hannah Paz-Westbrook
oil on canvas, screen
36” x 45”

Enamoiré has something to say about being present. There are still many powerful experiences in our lives that elude documentation. In the same way, many individuals defy classification. Like its subjects, Enamoiré is an exhibit that deserves (and requires) your attention—your undivided, in-person attention.

*moments ablaze, we watch*
Hannah Paz-Westbrook
oil on canvas, screen
24” x 36”

See Enamoiré in the Harrison Center’s Underground Gallery.