RAC is pleased to announce Natural Deceptions, the first solo exhibition in the Chicago area by Seattle-based photographer Natalie Krick. Inspired by magazine spreads and celebrity pinups, Natural Deceptions is a biting yet witty sendup of popular portrayals of feminine beauty and sexuality. Krick’s photographs are fueled by a conflicting attraction and aversion to images of glamorous women. Along with her mother and sister, she poses for the camera, reimagining the highly formalized images that taught them what it meant to be beautiful. Krick favors a harsh flash and vivid color to accentuate the superficiality and the façade of glamour that are the hallmarks of fashion media. “My mother, my sister, and I perform for each other, for the camera, and ultimately for you,” says Krick. “We impersonate each other and ourselves, emulating imagery that taught us to be beautiful.” The resulting images, piercing portraits and fragmented studies of their stylized bodies, mimic the allure and artifice found in magazines while mocking the idea that such images are easy on the eyes. Krick’s charged photographs, enthralling as any glossy picture, portray beauty as at once synthetic, flawed, threatening, seductive and garish.

–Paul D’Amato, Guest Curator