Christina De Musée

A recent transplant from Marina del Rey, California, Christina De Musée became fascinated by the frenetic winter social cycle of her new home town of Palm Desert. Her colorful, large-scale acrylics on canvases, reflect the artist’s interest in the visual spectacle created by whirlwind socializing that occurs when the oppressive heat of summer in the desert wanes and well-heeled snow birds, as the desert’s winter visitors are called, flock to town.

The artist notes that, as temperatures drop to idyllic levels, the staggering number of social events here -- dress balls, fashion shows, high-end fund-raisers, private parties and press-covered events that have inspired her sensually surrealistic tableaux featuring beautiful glitterati – multiplies exponentially. Executed in energizing and electric hues, the artist’s work exploits not only the enviable beauty and glamour of glitzy desert society functions, but also examines the darker side of this cultural phenomenon and its subtexts of excess, insatiability, superficiality and loneliness. Her enormous canvases are simultaneously seductive and shrill, alluring and anxiety-producing.

De Museé’s works have been snapped up by international collectors, including Johnny Carson, Charlie Sheen and Malcolm McDowell, and have graced the Norton Simon Museum, Long Beach Museum as well as the Armand Hammer Museum.

Christina De Musée will be spotlighted in an exhibition entitled “More, More, More” at Alicia Armstrong Gallery from March 14 through April 4. An opening night reception for the artist is scheduled for Saturday, March 19, 2011, from 5 to 8 p.m.

www.artdemusee.com