Sylvie Fleury Medium SPF 30, 2018

In her signature makeup palettes, Sylvie Fleury invites viewers to experience their plush colours writ large, highlighting the strategies of seduction used in cosmetic packaging and branding. These shaped canvases conflate the formal vocabulary of Minimalism with the recognisable shapes of the makeup compacts she references. In Medium SPF 30 (2018), she enlarges and simplifies the mineral powder compact by Clinique, which is identifiable by its sunshine yellow packaging. As the artist explains, ‘Painters have palettes; I use makeup colours.’ 

Her meticulous brushwork achieves the smooth lines of factory-manufactured goods, while simultaneously mimicking the ritualistic application of makeup, suggesting the pursuit of the perfect ‘finish’. Fleury holds up a mirror to systemic, internalised cultural values, such as the valorisation of female beauty, prompting questions about the fetishisation of luxury commodities and gendered patterns of consumption.