Collection: She's A Sweet Peach

The collection, She’s A Sweet Peach, is a satirical body of work that explores the way North American society perceives and speaks about women and the female body. In reference to the overused peach emoji in popular culture, women’s body parts are often compared to the likeness of fruit: either ripe, juicy and begging to be enjoyed; or rotten, past its prime, ready to be discarded, no longer valuable if slightly bruised, imperfect, or showing signs of age. A fruit serves one purpose - it is meant to be consumed, it is not permitted to just “be”. 

The artist is using this collection to ask questions rooted in women’s identity and purpose as a result of her personal observations that when a woman is not assuming a utilitarian role of wife or mother in servitude to others, her existence is often reduced to other forms of servitude based in providing pleasure and entertainment for others.

LaCaria aims to present the concept of the contemporary woman as a ripening peach on the brink of expiry as she explores themes rooted in alternative lifestyles, the patriarchy and sexuality that have been explored in the past by classical male artists through their objectification of the female body. By removing the figurative representation of the female body from the conversation, LaCaria is relying on the suggestive nature of peaches to mimic body parts - arguably a more uncomfortable experience for the viewer than the commonly digested and accepted visual of an objectified female body. 

She’s A Sweet Peach includes canvas works featuring not-so-subtle hand-written text suggesting instructions and criticisms to the artist, such as Paint This In, Tidy this up, You are too exposed,  etc. that serve to prompt the viewer to question whether the works are complete or in progress, a commentary on how women’s bodies and lives are constant “works in progress”, never perfected, never enough, constantly expected to be seeking unattainable betterment.

As an exciting departure from pure abstraction, LaCaria is excited to explore a figurative approach in this body of work through peach imagery. LaCaria’s 2023 collection entitled Pieces of The Whole began as a series of studies of peaches in preparation for this collection. Pieces of The Whole features studies of peaches on large canvases that were later cropped into smaller works, a performative exercise in exploring how women’s stories are often edited and censored for the benefit of the consumer.