Sharon Butler blogs about Joan Semmel: New Work at Alexander Gray Associates, New York, on view through October 15, 2016.

Butler writes: “Semmel’s lively, lyrical new paintings … depict fragmented sections of the aging female body, often from angles that can only be seen by women themselves. The gloriously large-scale nudes, all self portraits and many from selfie-like angles, provide an intimate view of how women see themselves–not as some guy’s ‘piece of ass,’ but as mysterious, powerful instruments, in control of their own destinies. Semmel, born in 1932, is clearly comfortable in her own skin.”