Art review: Dorothy Iannone at Peres Projects | Culture Monster | Los Angeles Times

Since the mid-1960s, Dorothy Iannone has depicted female sexuality as a force to be reckoned with. Her frank, colorful explorations of sex, love and desire are painted in a naive, graphic style, often accompanied by decorative patterns and handwritten narratives. Although laced with undercurrents of pain and tension that inevitably accompany such subject matter, they are for the most part ecstatic, delightfully direct celebrations of women’s sexual power.

A contemporary of early feminist artists such as Judy Chicago and Sylvia Sleigh who sought to counter sexism with a distinctly feminine aesthetic, Iannone has charted a different path. Her work is deeply personal and unmistakably feminine yet seems blissfully unconcerned with dismantling the trappings of patriarchy. Rather, in her world, women and men are both governed by the dictates of erotic passion.