Digital art pioneer Barbara Nessim has been at the forefront of the new media revolution as an artist, an illustrator and an educator. With The Model Project, closing this Saturday at DFN Gallery, she takes a cutting edge view of fashion's hold on women with a limited edition series of large scale collages printed on aluminum panels.

The culmination of a two-year long project, this work draws the viewer into Nessim's distinctive style and process. Working with photographer Karl Rudifill, she set up a high-end fashion shoot in her loft. She then deconstructed the images, juxtaposing cutouts of lips, hair, breasts and legs with jewelry and clothes to re-examine prevailing ideas about desire, beauty, fashion and commerce.

Left to right: Dream Still; Runway Runner; Historical Glance. Digital prints on aluminum, copyright the artist, courtesy DFN Gallery.

Barbara Nessim has been an influential presence in the art world over the past several decades. As an educator, she helped shape the MFA Computer Arts Program at the School of Visual Arts, and was Chairperson of Illustration at Parsons School of Design for 12 years. Her work has appeared on the covers of Time, The New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone, and many other national publications. Respected internationally for her groundbreaking use of the computer in the execution of fine art and illustration, she was recently honored as the first Artist Laureate of The Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Her artwork is included in many private and public collections including the permanent collections of The Victoria and Albert Museum, The Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C., and the Lund Konsthall in Lund, Sweden. Nessim is currently creating a series of murals for the event spaces of a new hotel opening in March 2010 in New York City.

The Model Project is on view through Saturday December 5 at DFN Gallery, 74 East 79^th Street, New York, NY. For information:212.334.3400.