Dana Holst’s solo exhibition, She’s All That, is a series of oil paintings and encaustic drawings presenting the human experience from a gynocentric viewpoint, focused on the complexity of female identity, rites of passage and bullying as it pertains to Holst’s articulation of the feminine self and its place within our social hierarchy.

Holst’s paintings draw from the familiar plots of fairy tales, personal experiences and her research into feminine interactions and social development. Relationships between women and the destructive characteristics of covetousness, jealousy and vanity are depicted in portraiture, with the underlying psychological tensions emanating through a classic indirect painting technique utilizing a piercing red ground.

Holst’s characters represent the cutting range of perceived archetypal female forms of bullying, such as exclusion from the group, gossip, rumour mongering and mental intimidation, culminating in mysterious and dark narratives about human nature.