Isabel Magowan is a fine artist living in Brooklyn, New York. She attended Wesleyan University for a BA in History before going on to Yale to receive an MFA in Photography. While studying at Yale, she was interested in exploring how time-based media and installation could communicate in alternative ways and began using video as a complementary method to her still photography. As a ballet dancer and child performer, Isabel’s exposure to the stage has influenced her perspective on class and materialism as she looks to themes such as fantasy, vanity, and escapism. Rather than making work that informs these concepts, she builds upon ironies that instead in fact disrupt the larger narrative.
“Isabel Magowan’s pictures offer a particular view into a life of American privilege, but with an ironic, sardonic twist. Executed with technical perfection, she explores themes of self image and worth, and moments of inner clarity and subtle darkness. These heightened, saturated photographs effortlessly blur melodrama with moments of true intimacy.” -Gregory Crewdson