EXHIBITIONS

HomeBodies explores the role domestic interiors play in contemporary portraiture, investigating how the body interacts with its familiar surroundings. Posed formality gives way to authenticity; expressions soften and postures loosen in one’s dwellings. The artists offer a candid glimpse into the private lives of their subjects, cultivating a sense of intimacy between the artist, subject, and viewer. HomeBodies features paintings by Richard Aldrich, Hernan Bas, Adrian Ghenie, Gisela McDaniel, JJ Manford, Alice Neel, Elizabeth Peyton, and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye.

GRIT: Graffiti, Grunge, and the 1990s, features paintings by Christopher Wool, Glenn Ligon, Cecily Brown, Richard Prince, Martin Wong, Elizabeth Peyton, Yoshitomo Nara, and Banksy. The artists in GRIT embody the spirit of the 1990s through subversive subjects, countercultural concepts, and guerrilla modes of production. Carrying the weight of a century and the anticipation of a new millennium, many artists in the ‘90s took it upon themselves to dissect and disrupt mainstream ideologies. A Do-It-Yourself attitude led to thriving subcultures that championed individuality and creativity. Their dialectical approaches to identity gave way to new considerations in painting beyond the rigidity of binaries like representation versus abstraction or graffiti versus fine art.

The harmonious hues and spontaneous marks in this selection of works echo the compositional cadences formalized by Lyrical Abstraction. Grounded in the movement by way of Zao Wou-Ki, this ensemble of abstract artists explores gesture and luminosity with the same instinctive musicality as generations before them. From Yayoi Kusama’s rhythmic Infinity Nets to Julie Mehretu’s dynamic line drawings, the legacy of Lyrical Abstraction continues to ring resonant.

This new surrealism with roots in German Expressionism, French symbolism, synthetic cubism, and abstract expressionism is defined by brash color, formalist construction, and escapism. The intense color and gestural fluidity lures us into a world removed from the social and political activism that has come to dominate 21st century contemporary theory. Still, however inviting the works may appear, they contain a darker, more unsettling reality beneath the surface. Join us, and take a dive Into Another World.