Rebecca Knapp s paintings intentionally fail to resolve the events that are depicted within the canvas frame. Overcast skies, featureless faces, and minimal landscapes- all maintain their ambiguous nature through flat surfaces, and loose brush stokes combined with a confident colour palette.

In her work we see trivial entertainment: a vision of racing that is scaled down from the adrenalin pumping racing cars to become more like toys, where the pit stop is a solitary job and a crash is not a big tragedy. In Knapp s paintings fantasies are acted upon in ‘bold moves’ and yet they appear laughable and pointless, leaving characters looking awkward and uncomfortable.

This treatment of her subject matter enables Knapp to discuss her ideas about gender identity. She sees gender as a ‘performative act’ rather than a social construct. The low quality of her brush-work is manipulated so that only a controlled amount of information is evident. The gender of individuals is suggested to us only by the activities they pursue, rather than their physical appearance. Her methods are supported by the origin of the characters. Knapp takes them from the internet, magazines, and the artists own photographs where their identities have already started to break down. Knapp builds on the sense of gender ambiguity to produce visual narratives that encourage us to question our preconceived ideas about gender identities.

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