Amelia Jayne‘s art demonstrates how our eye and visual culture are increasingly connected to the world of social media, particularly Instagram. Her paintings zoom in on our tables with a photographic edge that is reminiscent of our shots posted in stories during lunches or dinners with friends. It must be said, however, that this choice is not so new and is not strictly related to the social world. Already with Edgar Degas – if we think of the very famous painting L’absinthe -, or more generally with the Impressionists, we see the use of photographic cropping as a strategic point of view in the composition of a painting. The viewer becomes a direct protagonist of the scene, thus being included in the narrative offered by the artist. In this case Amelia Jayne makes the audience sit at her set tables, which from strangers become “ours.” Still Life that one after another appear so familiar and at the same time alive to us, despite the fact that the human figure is not directly present.

Courtesy Amelia Jayne