Phantasmal Gallery
Phantasmal Gallery
Brooke Shivers
ARTIST · ICICLE EXHIBITION · FEBRUARY 2026
The Bride
Photography
2025
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I created this piece in the same thought as “Donna.” The Bride in her veil—the veil of a Bride, Wife, Mother. Why are these our proudest labels? Why not our own names? We so easily hand those away. Here The Bride’s skin is removed and reworn. She’s disfigured by the peeling back of herself, again and again, layer by layer. ‘Til death do they part.
A Little Bit About The Artist
A Statement From The Artist
Brooke Shivers is a makeup artist and self-portraitist. Her work focuses on intimate, often unsettling details and the multiformity of the human face. She strives to see makeup art displayed alongside traditional fine arts, and believes that with the face and body as a canvas, viewers can find a personal and visceral context for abstraction and contemporary work.
What's your fave Gothic movie?
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My favorite gothic movie? How can I choose! I will have to say Phantom of the Opera (2004). I've loved it the longest and I’m still discovering heart-racing details 12 years later. But it's also an amazing time for gothic geeks. My more current answer has to be Sinners, which I consider Southern Gothic. The emotions I feel during that film are nearly unmatched. And it's a love letter to artists, no less!
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Who or what is the biggest influence in your practice?
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My biggest influence comes from my love for the smallest details in our world. Things that are overlooked, ugly, mundane, can all provide the spark if I look close enough. The fronds of a carnivorous sundew become dew-dropped eyelashes, the rainbow ripples of an oil spill become tears embedded in glass skin. These details take on new meaning when transferred to the canvas of the face—evocative, relatable, and unexpected. That’s where my compulsion lies. To find the beauty in something first and then to wear it on my skin second. I think we all feel that, at least a little…like when you pick a flower and put it behind your ear.
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