"Path of Compassion (Kristine Schomaker in the Guise of the Bodhisattva Tārā)" at Startup Art Fair

Frieze Week LA continues as my oil on linen painting "Path of Compassion (Kristine Schomaker in the Guise of the Bodhisattva Tārā)" is featured in the @perceivemeart Room 203 at the @thekinneyvenicebeach.

Friday, Feb 27: 5-7PM (VIP), 7-10PM (All Access).
Saturday, Feb 28: 12-9PM.
Sunday, March 1: 12-7PM.

Tickets: Available at https://www.startup-art.com/los-angeles

My artwork was inspired by the 8th–9th century Sri Lankan sculpture of Tārā housed in the British Museum in London. The painting serves as a bridge between the ancient religious traditions of the Global South and the urban reality of modern Los Angeles. By placing Schomaker—as part of her "Perceive Me" project—within this divine iconography, my painting engages with a broader cultural movement toward authenticity, vulnerability, and the reclamation of the human hand in an era of technological acceleration.

Schomaker’s own practice sits at the "intersection of personal healing and collective liberation," using her own body as raw material to challenge the "beauty industrial complex" of the 21st century. Her landmark "Perceive Me" project, which began in Los Angeles—a city notorious for its unrealistic images of the female body—was envisioned as a form of protest against the "marginalization of plus-size individuals". By embodying Tārā in this new painting, Schomaker extends this transformation into the realm of the sacred. The voluptuous figure that the art world once ignored or shamed is here elevated to the status of a Bodhisattva—a protector to whom one turns in distress. The divine figure reimagined as a contemporary presence navigating troubled times.

My painting of Kristine Schomaker as Tārā portrays a living, modern woman who has broken free from societal restraints as a static object in Room 33 in the London museum. Upon its acquisition in the 1830s, British Museum authorities were concerned that the "large exposed breasts" and "curvaceous hips" would be too provocative for the public, leading to the statue being hidden for thirty years. This history of shaming the female form directly mirrors the struggles Schomaker addresses in "Perceive Me".

We are in an age of unsettling transformations, from the climate crisis to democratic backsliding. In such turbulent times, the pursuit of peace, justice, and democracy demands renewed imagination. Path of Compassion (Kristine Schomaker in the Guise of the Bodhisattva Tārā) offers hope—an enlightened being who helps humanity escape from a recurring cycle of suffering. A Bodhisattva who sees us through troubled times by teaching us to turn again to the earth and to each other.
#BodyLiberation #vulnerability #visibility #FriezeWeek #GreggChadwick #PerceiveMe