Maiden, Mother, Crone explores all three stages of a woman's life through the allegory of fairy tales and religious stories.  The exhibition space itself is theatrical as it is staged with curtains and mirrors, pulling the viewer into the story.  Feinstein explores the tension in opposites and her sculptures capture decay as well as birth and light with darkness.  The materiality of the sculptures is carefully considered and urges the viewer to consider why some sculptures are cold and wet, whereas some are dry and light.   

 

Feinstein’s process starts with a 2D drawing which she cuts out and turns into a 3D paper sculpture.  These maquettes are transformed into bigger than life sculptures made from various materials ranging from wood, resin to metal.  Her polychrome figures are as painterly as they are sculptural, composed with bright hues and subtle tones built up with layers of pigmented synthetic resin.

 

Rachel Feinstein was born in Fort Defiance, Arizona in 1971. She received her BA from Columbia University in 1993, and that same year she attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Beginning with the group exhibition Let The Artist Live, at New York’s Exit Art in 1994, Feinstein has continued to exhibit her work internationally. Recent solo exhibitions include Folly, Madison Square Park, New York; The Snow Queen, Lever House, New York; and Tropical Rodeo, Le Consortium, Dijon.

​

​

https://thejewishmuseum.org/exhibitions/rachel-feinstein-maiden-mother-crone