What is Body Medium?

BODY MEDIUM is Annika Rhea's performance painting technique that utilizes the body in motion as a paint brush. This artistic discipline breaks and merges the traditional molds of fine art and dance.

"I’m inspired by the human form as a means of artistic expression.

I’ve spent 28 years of my life actively studying various forms of movement and harvesting my fascination with the human body as a vessel of expression, communication and entertainment. I’m most fascinated by the versatility of the body’s ability to embody emotion, shapes, concepts and above all, the body’s innate and primal ability to connect with music.

Performance art is memorable, yet fleeting. I created BODY MEDIUM as a way to capture the power and energy emitted during performance and imprint it on canvas to live on in a new way. My paintings map energy, they map movement, they are the imprint of a happening. Each one is unique and cannot be recreated.

The range of my work explores emotional states, destinations, natural forces and concepts using color as a metaphor and extension of self. Most recently, I’ve been exploring “painting music”, mapping the energetic composition of a musical score interpreted by my body in motion.

My process-oriented work puts the artist at the center of the action painting, what I call immersive action painting. I become immersed in the art as I am creating it and in this way, I become an extension of the art itself. During the act of creation, there is no separation between me and my work. As I move, I trust in the cross between freedom of expression and the accumulation of technical mastery in every moment of creation.

At the root of it all, I am a movement artist, a painter and the canvas is my stage.

BODY MEDIUM is a living art experience from my soul to yours."

Annika Rhea