Artist & actress Rebecca Dayan – Stars in upcoming movie

Artist and actress – multi talent Rebecca Dayan made her solo debut at the gallery in September 2015.

For her, painting and acting are to expressions that need to co exist. As they feed of and inspire one another one couldn’t exist without the other.

The inspiration for the solo show Assumption at Catherine Ahnell Gallery last year came to her while researching for a role in the upcoming film Novitiate – a film she just recently finished recording.

Photo from the recoording of the film Novitiate.

In the film Dayan plays a young nun, a role that required a lot of research to understand. Dayan spent time studying stories that were either written by nuns or included interviews with nuns. Dayan, a non-religious woman, found intrigue in the way that these nuns expressed their love for God.

This led Dayan to further explore the parrallells that can be found between passions and releigion and passions and eroticism, giving her the idea for the series of watercolor portraits for her exhibition.

“I became fascinated by religious iconography depicting religious ecstasy and the inherent human need to find meaning and solace in altered states – communing with a higher power through religion, sex, drugs, money etc.” says Dayan. “There is an inherent need in all of us to imbue ideas, symbols, and people with meaning in order to fight the inevitable. Most of the time we distract ourselves to not face the truth, until we reach moments of freedom and bliss. It is in these small fleeting moments that I am interested.”

Rebecca Dayan’s work is currently featured as part of the group exhibition The Year Of The Woman at Catherine Ahnell Gallery.

Available work by Rebecca Dayan from the current exhibition The Year Of The Woman at Catherine Ahnell Gallery, 66 Grand Street #1, SoHo-NY