Daisy Rockwell

A review of my show in Philadelphia, by Victoria Donohoe Legacy...

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 10:26:00 -0500

A review of my show in Philadelphia, by Victoria Donohoe

Legacy of difference

Since Daisy Rockwell left academia in 2006 - a Hindi scholar, she headed the Center for South Asian Studies at the University of California at Berkeley - she has been painting small portraits of iconic political figures, including some from South Asia and the Middle East (Nehru, Saddam) chiefly by referencing newspaper and Internet photos. This work is now at Twelve Gates Arts.

Rockwell is a granddaughter of Norman Rockwell, master of American genre scenes. Her artwork is sometimes the very opposite - he made the everyday iconic, she aims to bring the iconic back to the everyday. (I recall several sculpture exhibitions by her uncle, Peter Rockwell, in Philadelphia decades ago. A Haverford College graduate, he still has family members studying at Haverford. And her father, Jarvis, to whom she dedicated her new book, The Little Book of Terror, is an artist as well.)

Rockwell’s range of subjects here is quite extensive, from a dour portrait of a Taliban leader to scenes of visits to South Asia by President Kennedy, Jacqueline Kennedy, and her sister Lee Radziwill. The two women are shown together, happily riding an elephant. But most of the other images are small brooding works, a few in lurid colors, which creates a dense, moody atmosphere rather than textural weight. The mix of cultural, religious, political and personal references to the subcontinent is somehow not confusing. And the portraits function as compelling, decipherable records of personal anguish filtered through a patchy, transfiguring screen. Therein lie both their despair and their art-historical interest.

Twelve Gates Arts, 51 N. 2d St. To Feb. 25. Tue-Sat 11-5. 215-253-8578.

Whenever anyone asks me what the pseudonym ‘Lapata’...

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 10:49:37 -0500

Whenever anyone asks me what the pseudonym ‘Lapata’ means, I’m going to send them this photo, which the photographer, Slogan Murugan called ‘Lapataganj’ on facebook, after a popular TV serial. (link to Murugan’s website, Mumbai Paused)

Show at Twelve Gates Arts opening 2/3/12: Come see this and...

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 17:17:00 -0500

Show at Twelve Gates Arts opening 2/3/12:

Come see this and other paintings in the series in my show at Twelve Gates Arts, opening February 3rd, 2012 in Philadelphia. All previously unexhibited work, mostly related to South Asia themes. Shown here- A Quiet Stroll: Jackie Kennedy and Jawaharlal Nehru enjoy a quiet stroll in Washington DC.

The Little Book of Terror: My new book, The Little Book of...

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 17:10:00 -0500

The Little Book of Terror:

My new book, The Little Book of Terror comes out on February 1st, 2012, from Foxhead Books. The book launch will be at the opening of an exhibition of my paintings at Twelve Gates Arts in Philadelphia on Friday, February 3, 2012, 6:30-8:30.

Lecture and show in Waterloo, Ontario: I had a wonderful time in...

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 17:07:00 -0500

Lecture and show in Waterloo, Ontario:

I had a wonderful time in Waterloo, Ontario last week, giving a lecture at CIGI with the help of Christine Fair, and also attending the opening of my show “Please Make it Stop!” at the Button Factory.

The best of all possible care: Former Iraqi leader Saddam...

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 04:17:20 -0400

The best of all possible care:

Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein,
upon being apprehended by US forces in
Iraq, was treated to the best possible dental
care before he was executed.

Acrylic on wooden panel, 10” x 10.”

I have a new Etsy shop! Right now I’ve got sets of Libya...

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 10:19:06 -0400

I have a new Etsy shop! Right now I’ve got sets of Libya and Egypt postcards up. Click here to visit. #fridgeart

Part of my new series on Libya. The rest are here:...

Fri, 05 Aug 2011 21:44:00 -0400

Part of my new series on Libya. The rest are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lapata/sets/72157627350962636/

The complete series is now available at my etsy shop as a series of 10 postcards. Click here to visit the shop.

Within a Budding Grove: A commissioned painting of Taliban...

Thu, 21 Jul 2011 05:08:13 -0400

Within a Budding Grove:

A commissioned painting of Taliban leader Mullah Omar.

Acrylic on wooden panel, 6” x 6”

After watching Gone with the Wind at an impressionable age, I ...

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 21:06:21 -0400

After watching Gone with the Wind at an impressionable age, I became obsessed with the flexibility of Clark Gable’s eyebrows. I endeavored for many months afterwards to develop the muscles necessary to produce similar effects with my own eyebrows. I now bear the mark of my success on my 42-year-old-face: a surprising fountain of wrinkles originating from my left eyebrow and shooting upward toward my hairline that seem to have materialized overnight. At night, brushing my teeth before the mirror, I stare intently at the wrinkles and try to produce the facial expressions that created them. And then I naturally think about age, and about death, and about Osama bin Laden’s face, and what, exactly, the Navy Seals did to it that makes photographs of it unfit for public consumption.

-From my new post on the death of bin Laden and various other individuals.

Sajjad Zaheer: Portrait of Urdu author Sajjad Zaheer, for the...

Tue, 17 May 2011 05:01:07 -0400

Sajjad Zaheer:

Portrait of Urdu author Sajjad Zaheer, for the cover of a friend’s translation of his novel A Night in London.

Acrylic on wooden panel, 6” x 6.”

Pièce de Résistance: The final installment in my series of...

Sun, 10 Apr 2011 09:21:00 -0400

Pièce de Résistance:

The final installment in my series of paintings inspired by the 2011 revolution in Egypt. This painting is based on a photo of a couple that got married during the protests in Tahrir Square (my painting Honeymoon is based on a photo of a couple who came to the square right after getting married). This painting is much larger than the others in the series, which are all 6” x 6”.

Acrylic on wooden panel, 12” x 18”

See the full series here.

The complete series is now available as a series of ten postcards at my etsy shop. To visit the shop, click here.

Tiger (detail; full painting here) Russian premier Vladimir...

Sat, 09 Apr 2011 18:23:00 -0400

Tiger

(detail; full painting here)

Russian premier Vladimir Putin pats a tiger. Putin has championed the cause of the endangered species, and is said to have identified tigers as a suitable symbol for his reign.

Acrylic on wooden panel with gold mica flakes, 10” x 22”

Poseidon. Vladimir Putin with dolphins. (detail- full sized work...

Mon, 04 Apr 2011 21:13:00 -0400

Poseidon. Vladimir Putin with dolphins. (detail- full sized work here)

Centaur. Vladimir Putin bare-chested on horseback.

Mon, 04 Apr 2011 21:12:58 -0400

Centaur. Vladimir Putin bare-chested on horseback.

Alina Kabaeva, Putin’s alleged girlfriend, a rhythmic gymnast.

Mon, 04 Apr 2011 21:12:08 -0400

Alina Kabaeva, Putin’s alleged girlfriend, a rhythmic gymnast.

Alina Kabaeva, Vladmir Putin’s alleged girlfriend and babymama,...

Mon, 04 Apr 2011 21:11:25 -0400

Alina Kabaeva, Vladmir Putin’s alleged girlfriend and babymama, a rhythmic gymnast of some repute.

Alina Kabaeva, Vladimir Putin’s alleged girlfriend (and baby...

Mon, 04 Apr 2011 21:10:29 -0400

Alina Kabaeva, Vladimir Putin’s alleged girlfriend (and baby mama), an Olympic rhythmic gymnast.

Bio for Daisy Rockwell, AKA "lapata"

Mon, 04 Apr 2011 14:50:00 -0400

Daisy Rockwell paints under the takhallus, or alias, Lapata (pronounced ‘laapataa’), which is Urdu for “missing,” or “absconded,” as in “my luggage is missing,” or “the bandits have absconded.” She posts her paintings regularly to Flickr, and writes for the blog Chapati Mystery. She has shown her work in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Washington, DC, Waterloo, Ontario, and Lenox and North Adams, Massachusetts. Her essays on literature and art have appeared in Bookslut, Caravan and The Sunday Guardian (New Delhi).

Rockwell grew up in a family of artists in western Massachusetts, some whose work adorns the surfaces of chinaware and brightens up the waiting rooms of dentists’ offices, and others whose artistic output has found more select audiences. From 1992-2006, Lapata made a detour into Academia, from which she emerged with a PhD in South Asian literature, a book on Upendranath Ashk and a mild case of depression. Nonetheless, she sometimes still teaches Hindi.

Rockwell’s new book of paintings and essays on the Global War on Terror, The Little Book of Terror, debuts in February 2012 from Foxhead Books.