Jayne Mansfield featured in White Shadows Exhibition

White Shadows is an upcoming exhibit held in Singapore.

In White Shadows, Sullivan continues to explore his long-held fascination with the west coast of America. In a series of new oil paintings, he paints Hollywood blondes from the early days of the silver screen, including Jean Harlow, Jayne Mansfield and Ida Lupino. Sullivan is fascinated by the way our shared imagination, language, actions and emotions are informed by film. These Hollywood starlets defined different kinds of femininity and created now familiar pop culture terms such as ‘Blonde Bombshell’ and ‘Platinum Blonde.’ They were as famous for their scandalous and often tragic lives as their movie careers. For example, an original sex symbol and screen siren, Jean Harlow died at 26 years of age and Jayne Mansfield was killed in a car accident aged 34. Sullivan continues to explore notions of tragic glamour in his photographic ‘still life’ works that function as contemporary vanitas: the bright beautiful flowers symbolically refer to the passing of time and the transience of nature.