Chloe Piene and Peggy Preheim


November 9th 2018

Chloe Piene and Peggy Preheim

The first artist I found who really intrigued me for part 3 of this unit is Chloe Piene. Born in Stamford Connecticut in 1972, Piene earned her Bachelor of Art in Art History from Columbia University in New York in 1993, and then went on to receive her Masters of Fines Arts from Goldsmiths College in London in 1997. Piene is now based in New York City mainly working with drawing, though she also works with sculpture and video-making. There wasn’t a lot about her or her process on the internet, but I chose to look at her art because it’s both striking and very different to the art that I make or that I am typically drawn to.

The three examples I’ve included in order are titled Headless 10 (2004), Demure (2004), and Girl Drowning (Flyer with Strands) (2001), all of which are done in Charcoal on paper or vellum. For Headless and Demure, the use of gesture drawing and what looks to be continuous gives the works the sense of constant movement and fluidity. I appreciate the ease of the art style while still coming off as complex and thought-provoking; it’s a different look at life drawing that feels whimsical due to the curly lines, but still in some ways morbid because of the lack of a head and arms. Girl Drowning is much more obviously morbid. The skeletal face and torso definitely portray a sense of pain or agony, and the lines surrounding the body give the piece a sense violent action. Though the piece is names “Girl Drowning”, it really looks like a girl being ripped out of her own skin. Morbidity is a main theme in Piene’s works, though she plays with a number of themes ranging from lighthearted to dark.


Headless (2004)


Demure (2004)


Girl Drowning (2001)

The next artist I chose to research was Peggy Preheim. Unlike Chloe Piene, Preheim’s work is much closer to my personal style and taste. Preheim was born in 1963 in South Dakota, but now lives and works in Yonkers, New York. She went to school at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design from 1981 to 1983. She primarily works with drawing and collage, and creates incredibly intimate work using both personal and universal themes.

The three works by Peggy Preheim the really interested me while doing this research are The Astronomer (2010), Bee in the Bonnet (2009), and Femme de Chambre (2013), which were all created using pencil on paper (Femme de Chambre also includes some collage.) As in most of her other works, each of these drawings have a vintage feel to them, especially due to the depiction of people that seem to be from the 50s or 60s. Her work itself doesn’t necessarily impact a person’s emotions quite like that of Chloe Piene, but the choice of creating such small and detailed works on larger sheets of paper in a way is heartwarming. When looking at it, I felt a sense of calm and quiet, and it welcomed the idea of quite reflection on the piece and a one-on-one experience with it as well. The use of these vintage themes is universal enough that people can think of their own relatives – old pictures of their family or simply old images of strangers from such a romanticized time to people now. This makes these pieces become more personal to people viewing it, and I appreciate that a lot.

The Astronomer (2010)



Bee in the Bonnet (2009)


Femme de Chambre (2013)


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