EMILY EVELETH: Everything but the Truth

"With serious humor, Eveleth treats these ordinary delights with a reverence reserved for high-art portraits and still lifes. Her sitters rise to the occasion by eagerly showing, without shame, just what they are. Eveleth does not depict them confined within their original packaging of greyish-brown boxes or waxy white bags. Nor are they kept at a distance beneath the glass of a baker’s showcase. These donuts have been lovingly moved to environments where they can shine. Through this thoughtful treatment, they become the protagonists of their own narratives. They exercise the freedom to emote and capture the attention they think they so richly deserve."

- Bridget R. Cooks in "Taste"

"Eveleth’s works range in size from a few inches square to over seven feet in height. She gives each painting the same amount of space on the gallery walls, allowing viewers to engage with the paintings on equal terms. This exhibition includes several very small paintings that offer multiple views of donuts on a single plane. Crush (2023) presents a pair of donuts in the middle ground and a convex detail of their points of convergence in the foreground. The fish-eye effect distorts their appearance; it’s as if viewers see them through a peephole or magnifying glass. Through these up-close and intimate views, the donuts become performers who tantalize the senses and await the responses of their viewers, who are now positioned as voyeurs."

- Bridget R. Cooks

"The classic varieties of these pastries are popular across socio-economic registers. However, Eveleth’s donuts are working class and in this series they seem to want to be more. In Mme. Du Barry, the floral motif of the white silk brocade brings a measure of elegance and refinement to the pair of pink frosted donuts. They become items of feminine luxury in front of the ornamental background. The reflective surface beneath them provides the opportunity for vanity and confirms the donuts’ presence as something to be looked at. Here, the donuts fulfill their aspirations to be beautiful objects. Arranged in front of the decadent fabric, the pair lie in a leisurely manner, like an odalisque waiting to be attended to. The title of the painting refers to Jeanne Bécu, Comtesse du Barry, the last maîtresse-en-titre of King Louis XV in late-eighteenth-century France... Eveleth denotes Bécu’s rise in status from poor beginnings to royal wealth through the object choices and the background design of her painting. In a different environment, the Barbie pink donuts may lend themselves to associations with dollhouse dreams of girlhood. Eveleth’s impasto brushstrokes and delicately stenciled edges, however, signal an affluent identity and expensive tastes. Contemporary portraits of Madame Du Barry, such as the portrait by Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun in 1782, were painted in the rococo style that intrigues Eveleth. Mme. du Barry retains the dreamy quality that is the style’s hallmark. The painting cultivates a taste in the viewers for the flavor of the donuts, as the donuts demonstrate their cultivated taste for the finer things in life."

- Bridget R. Cooks in "Taste"