Katherine Bradford, Dark Swim, 2021; acrylic on canvas, 20h x 16w in, 50.80h x 40.64w cm
Left: Katherine Bradford, Close Friends, 2021; acrylic on canvas, 40h x 30w in/ 101.60h x 76.20w cm
Right: Katherine Bradford, Family Embrace, 2021; acrylic on canvas, 40h x 30w in/ 101.60h x 76.20w cm
Katherine Bradford (b. 1942) is known for her inventive, unwieldy, and deeply personal compositions. Against the undefined spaces that Bradford so skillfully creates, the artist’s subjects assert themselves as places of imagination or introspection as well as sites to consider politics, sexuality, and, sometimes very simply, color, shape or the materiality of paint.
Mariel Capanna, String, String, Birthday Cake, Cars, 2022; oil, wax, and chalk on panel, 30h x 26w x 1 5/16d in/ 76.20h x 66.04w x 3.33d cm
Left: Mariel Capanna, Quilt, Cookie Dough, Chimney, Snow, 2022; oil, wax, and chalk on panel, 30h x 26w x 1 5/16d in/ 76.20h x 66.04w x 3.33d cm
Right: Mariel Capanna, Cigarette, Candles, Fireworks, Swan, 2022; oil, wax, and chalk on panel, 30h x 26w x 1 5/16d in/ 76.20h x 66.04w x 3.33d cm
Mariel Capanna, Pencil, Telephone, Microphone, Mug, 2022; oil, wax, and chalk on panel, 30h x 26w x 1 5/16d in/ 76.20h x 66.04w x 3.33d cm
Mariel Capanna (b. 1988) explores relationships between time, place, image, and memory through performative, reflexive painting. Working from direct observation of films, documentaries and found filmic ephemera, Capanna indexes these moving images using gesture, symbol, and color that reference and enact the constructive processes of memory via perception and engagement. This simultaneous activity of watching and painting mimics that of the everyday challenge of both viewing and experiencing the world around us.
James Castle, Untitled (House with trees/shed), n.d.; soot and saliva on found paper, 5 1/2h x 7 3/8w in/ 13.97h x 18.73w cm
James Castle, Untitled (Shed with sawhorse/shed), n.d.; soot and saliva on found paper, 5 1/2h x 7 3/8w in/ 13.97h x 18.73w cm
James Castle, Untitled (Pink Dream House with Yellow Walkway), n.d.; color of unknown origin on found paper, 4 1/2h x 4 3/4w in/ 11.43h x 12.07w cm
James Castle (1899–1977) created sensitively wrought drawings, books, and assemblages from humble materials such as discarded envelopes, matchboxes, twine and soot. Born deaf and believed to have never learned to read, write, or sign, Castle spent his lifetime making art on his family’s rural homestead in Garden Valley, Idaho. Intimate yet often mysterious, his works depict people and animals, buildings, interiors, and landscapes based on his home as well as other places he lived and visited. His complex body of work offers a fascinating glimpse into rural American life and landscape of the last century.
Emma cc Cook, Pastoral Schematic II, 2022; oil, upholstery, walnut, mdf, 18h x 28 1/4w in/ 45.72h x 71.75w cm
Emma cc Cook, Pastoral Schematic III, 2022; oil, upholstery, walnut, mdf, 18h x 28 1/4w in/ 45.72h x 71.75w cm
Emma cc Cook (b. 1989) captures the American midwest in dark, hushed monochrome, depicting a world where individual and collective memory collide, revealing secret narratives, forgotten truths, and newly forming futures. Her mottled, shape-shifting environments oscillate between terror and tranquility, inviting the viewer to consider the multifarious narratives that coexist and evolve over time.
Left: Kinke Kooi, In Touch, 2011; acrylic, gouache, colored pencil on paper, 26h x 16 1/2w in/ 66.04h x 41.91w cm
Right: Kinke Kooi, Bonding, 2019; acrylic, gouache, fineliner on paper, 40 9/16h x 26w in/ 103.03h x 66.04w cm
Left: Kinke Kooi, Principle of Motion, 2015; acrylic, colored pencil on paper, 24h x 18 1/8w in/ 60.96h x 46.04w cm
Right: Kinke Kooi, Principle of Motion, 2011; acrylic, gouache, colored pencil on paper, 5 5/16h x 4 1/2w in/ 13.49h x 11.43w cm
Left: Kinke Kooi, Mimesis (2), 2016; acrylic, gouache, colored pencil on paper, 30h x 22 7/16w in/ 76.20h x 56.99w cm
Right: Kinke Kooi, Immanence (2), 2018; acrylic, gouache, colored pencil on paper, 18 1/8h x 11 13/16w in/ 46.04h x 30w cm
Kinke Kooi’s (b. 1961) strange and seductive works on paper engage with themes of gender, connection, and notions of the “other”. She meticulously renders ornate and florid details—clamshells, pearls, flowers, seedpods, fleshy folds, breasts—that coalesce to form an anthropomorphic garden that is both thought provoking and visually rich.
Left: Rob Lyon, The forest thinks of you, 2020; oil on linen, 19 11/16h x 15 3/4w in/ 50.01h x 40.01w cm
Right: Rob Lyon, Triangulate to titillate, 2022; oil on linen, 19 11/16h x 15 3/4w in/ 50.01h x 40.01w cm
Left: Rob Lyon, Each eyelid a shutter, 2021; oil on linen, 19 11/16h x 15 3/4w in/ 50.01h x 40.01w cm
Right: Rob Lyon, And I’ll be changed, 2022; oil on linen, 19 11/16h x 15 3/4w in/ 50.01h x 40.01w cm
Left: Rob Lyon, Plough it up, lift the lid, 2021; oil on linen, 11 13/16h x 9 7/8w in/ 30h x 25.08w cm
Right: Rob Lyon, All that was, wasn’t, 2021; oil on linen, 11 13/16h x 9 7/8w in/ 30h x 25.08w cm
Rob Lyon, Harmonious, inert, 2021; oil on linen, 19 11/16h x 15 3/4w in/ 50.01h x 40.01w cm
Rob Lyon (b. 1982) is a self-taught painter who, since 2014, has been painting the unique landscape around the South Downs in England. Moved by its distinct ridges of wooded, rolling hills and valleys, dramatic skies, and sweeping vistas, the artist captures the animistic, mystical qualities of the land with a series of simplified forms, expressive colors, strong lines, and patterned brushstrokes.
Ryan McLaughlin, Untitled, 2022; oil and gouache on linen, 17 3/8h x 23w x 7/8d in/ 44.13h x 58.42w x 2.22d cm
Ryan McLaughlin (b. 1981) paints and stencils fragments of letters, words, and symbols onto his canvases, often referencing found text from advertisements or signs. Toggling between subjective gestures and common signifiers with more fixed meanings, McLaughlin’s disparate and decontextualized marks combine in a space that allows for multiple readings and understandings.
Conny Purtill, The Ground: Putty Must, 2020; graphite on excised page from “End Pages” by Nick Herman, 7h x 8 3/4w in/ 17.78h x 22.23w cm
Conny Purtill, The Ground: Putty Must, 2022, graphite on found paper, 7h x 8 3/4w in, 17.78h x 22.23w cm
Conny Purtill (b. 1969) creates graphite drawings that hold their own idiosyncratic logic, structure, and meaning, often exploring foundational principles of time, gravity, love, speed, togetherness, ego, and grace.
Bill Traylor, Spiritual Blue Goat, 1939–42; poster paint on cardboard, 9h x 12w in/ 22.86h x 30.48w cm
Bill Traylor, Man Walking Dog, 1939–42; colored pencil on cardboard, 12h x 12w in/ 30.48h x 30.48w cm
Bill Traylor, Red Snake/Blue Man, 1939–42; colored pencil on cardboard, 10 3/4h x 4 3/4w in/ 27.31h x 12.07w cm
Born into slavery, Bill Traylor (1853–1949) began to draw at the age of 85 while living on the streets of Montgomery, Alabama. Using discarded cardboard and signs, pencil, and poster paint, Traylor recorded his memories of plantation life and later observations of the city—uniquely and distinctly describing animals, human figures, and abstract forms with a commanding use of line, color, and composition. Traylor’s body of work speaks poignantly to the complexities, inequalities, and tensions that the artist experienced and witnessed during the Jim Crow Era in the American South.