WEST STOCKBRIDGE — Last summer, artist Ilene Spiewak supervised the professional crating of a self portrait in her backyard Berkshires studio, in preparation for its shipment to the nation’s capital. Later this month, she will see it for the first time since — hanging among the work of 41 fellow finalists, culled from 2,700 total submissions — at The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. “The Outwin 2022: American Portraiture Today,” will open to the public on April 30 and run through February 26, 2023 before traveling to other U.S. cities. Spiewak will travel to the exhibit’s invitation-only opening on April 29.
“I was just totally shocked!” Spiewak told The Edge of being named a finalist, after answering a call for submissions more than two years ago. “I felt like I had nothing to lose,” added the artist, who never stopped painting during the pandemic and, if anything, became more prolific during a time when daily life was largely disrupted.
“My studio was the one consistent thing I could count on, and I really started to focus my work inward,” said Spiewak who, citing a lack of opportunities to exhibit her work at the time, contemplated submitting a piece despite the steep fee to do so. Then, she turned her attention to editing down her choices.
“I had really just finished this self portrait, and I was working on another that wasn’t quite done,” Spiewak said of her work which, in keeping with Outwin’s strict guidelines, will remain under wraps until the show opens. The protracted process was equal parts timing and luck. While Spiewak’s focus was never on portraiture, she did paint her own for the first time when she was 21 years old. Following the deaths of her grandparents and parents, she painted their portraits as well, “as a way to work through the grieving process.”
Several years ago, upon earning her MFA from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, her entire approach to painting changed. “[Soon] I was painting my friends. I was painting my partner, who is my muse … I realized I was just fascinated,” said the artist. Submission guidelines encouraged artists to challenge the traditional definitions of portraiture; this, for Spiewak — who identifies as an older student — was a given.
“We’re all decomposing a little bit every day, and [as an artist] I look at the aging female body: wrinkles, gravity, scars, all of those things,” said Spiewak of what makes her portraits distinct. In fact, “they’re not very pretty, they’re not flattering, they’re exaggerated … meant to go beyond what anyone looks like,” she said, citing that, from a feminist perspective, there is still work to do.
“Women still deal with the same issues … especially aging women … [and] nobody looks at us anymore,” said Spiewak, whose goal is to grab the viewer’s attention, which, considering her recent accolades, she more than achieved. While Spiewak’s portrait remains out of the collective eye at present, her artist’s statement offers a glimpse into her creative process:
I love the gestural feel of the paint … the feel of a thickly loaded brush in my hand.
I use my hand and my brush in fearless narrative isolation.
Visceral, muscular handling of paint on canvas matters to me.
Paint matters.
Paint is alive and responsive.
Paint is sensual.
Color is emotive.
Melancholic.
Paint has no age biases.
No gender biases.
No race biases.
Spiewak holds a BA in Art Education, an MA in Art Therapy, and earned her MFA in 2017. She has worked as an art therapist in a psychiatric hospital, and as an art teacher at an alternative high school. After moving to the Berkshires in 2008, Spiewak worked at The Brien Center and the College Internship Program. She is a Berkshire Art Association board member. Her paintings have been exhibited in juried group and solo shows around the Northeast. She paints every day in her little red studio, where visits are by appointment only. Follow her on Instagram @spiewakilene.
