Jaimie Warren: You Are So Beautiful in the Face

For photographer Jaimie Warren, life is a performance and the world is her stage. Through a pseudo-documentary lens, she frames the world almost indiscriminately, capturing the quirky personalities, places, and oddball moments that shape her life. Many photographs focus on herself, friends, or passersby in loosely choreographed situations reminiscent of straightforward tourist snapshots, outlandish “party” photographs, or documents of full-blown public spectacles featuring zany characters outfitted to amaze. While her portraits and close-ups of food invoke photographers Diane Arbus, Andy Warhol, Cindy Sherman, and Nikki S. Lee, among others, Warren’s photographs are uniquely her own in their strategic balance of artifice and authenticity, subtly conjuring all of the inconsistencies, ironies, and hilariously awkward moments that permeate everyday life. Based in Kansas City, this is the artist’s first solo museum exhibition.

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Above: Jaimie Warren, Untitled (Self Portrait, Red and Flowers, Tokyo), 2007; chromogenic print, 30 x 40 inches; Courtesy of the artist