Mira Dancy (b. 1979, UK) lives and works in New York where she earned her MFA from Columbia University in 2009 after completing her BA at Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY in 2001. Interested in figurative representation, Dancy makes paintings that portray the body in unconventional ways, exploring contemporary issues surrounding gender, sexuality, society and politics as well as the long and problematic history of the male gaze. Dancy’s practice often directly references the poses and gestures of 19th century figurative painting, reclaiming the female subject as part of a confrontational oeuvre that simultaneously investigates the aesthetics of advertising and #Girlboss-style feminism. Rendered in saturated, vespertine hues, Dancy’s paintings portray determined subjects seemingly incapable of concealing their interiority or, as the New York Times’ Roberta Smith once wrote, ‘female nudes who don’t have time for the male gaze’. Recent solo exhibitions include those at Galeria Agustina Ferreyra, Mexico City (2020); JOAN, Los Angeles (2019); Lumber Room, Portland, Oregon (2018); Night Gallery, Los Angeles (2018, 2015 and 2014); Chapter NY, New York (2017 and 2015); Yuz Museum, Shanghai (2016); and Galerie Hussenot, Paris (2015). Her work is included the collections of LACMA, Los Angeles; The Whitney Museum, New York; and the YUZ Foundation, Shanghai. In 2015, she was included in Greater New York at MoMA PS1.