KILLER CUTE
July 17 - August 28, 2021
Dan Attoe | Zachary Armstrong | Kirsten Deirup | Corinne von Lebusa
Stacy Leigh | Stephen McClintock | Alissa McKendrick
Claire Milbrath | Emily Marie Miller | Luke O’Halloran
Calliope Pavlides | Marika Thunder | Noelia Towers | Sandy Williams IV
Opening Reception Saturday, July 17th, 2021 from 4-8pm
On view through August 28th, 2021
The ancient Roman poet, Virgil, wrote pastoral verses in response to the disorder and chaos of city life. Today, depictions of rural life continue to occupy our visual scroll as cottagecore enthusiasts such as Taylor Swift and David Beckham commercialize the aesthetic movement by sharing images online. Young people continue to leave cities due to improvements in technology and access to remote jobs.
William Shakespeare’s pastoral comedy As You Like It, sought to celebrate country life while its characters, who took on elaborate gender reversal roles, suffered the perils of injustice and even death threats. Prior to the Great Recession, Thomas Kinkade sold millions of copies of his idyllic cottage paintings, while the darkness within him did not always reflect the peace and serenity of his artworks.
Viewed with rose-tinted glasses and a lack of experience, romanticising about rural life can overlook a past where social norms were marked with aspects of colonialism, racism, and sexism. With heightened awareness, the opportunity to signal our own response creates mystery about what is right in front of us while seemingly being far away and mysterious.
Dan Attoe’s paintings depict natural wonders—waterfalls, beaches, mountains, rocky cliffs, over-sized forests—populated by tiny figures spouting even tinier diaristic missives, painted in silver and culled from the artist's stream of consciousness. The miniature humans disrupt the grandeur of nature with their small stature and utterances. He has had solo exhibitions at Peres Projects, Berlin, DE; Western Projects, Chicago, IL; The Hole, New York, NY, Half Gallery, New York, NY and Vilma Gold, London, UK. Group exhibitions include; Franklin Parrash Gallery, New York, NY; Fredric Snitzer Gallery, Miami, FL; PAC Padiglione d'Arte Contemporanea, Milan, IT; APC Musée d'art Contemporain, Bordeaux, FR and Saatchi Gallery, London, UK among others.
Zachary Armstrong lives and works in Dayton, Ohio. He works in painting, but also in painted sculpture and other media. Through his works, Armstrong explores a childhood creative Elysium, using children’s drawings, both of his own making, and of his friends as the base for his large-scale encaustic works. Armstrong’s choice of encaustic as the dominant medium also owes a debt to his subject-matter, choosing the imprecise, fuzzy impression of lines fused via layers of wax, melted together over the hard outlines of oil or acrylic paint. Armstrong has exhibited widely in the United States and abroad at venues such as Tilton Gallery, NY; GNYP Gallery, Berlin and Night Gallery, LA.
Kirsten Deirup attended The Cooper Union, New York, NY. She has had solo exhibitions at Nichelle Beauchene Gallery, New York, NY; Guild and Greyschul, New York, NY; and Rare, New York, NY. Group exhibitions include; Morgan Lehman Gallery, New York, NY; Jeff Bailey Gallery, New York, NY; Marc Wolf Contemporary Art, San Fransisco, CA; Geoffrey Young Gallery, Great Barrington, MA; and Roberts Projects, Los Angeles, CA.
Corinne von Lebusa lives and works in Leipzig. After studying fashion and graphic design at the Burg Giebichenstein Academy of Fine Arts in Halle, she began her painting studies with Professor Arno Rink at the HGB Leipzig in 2001, which she completed in 2008 with Professor Neo Rauch with a diploma.
Stacy Leigh lives and works in New York, NY. Her paintings and photographs of both people and love dolls have been exhibited at venues such as; 303 Gallery, New York, NY; Flag Art Foundation, New York, NY; Fortnite Institute, New York, NY; Castor Gallery New York, NY; Pen + Brush, New York, NY and Gallerie Manque, Brooklyn, NY.
Stephen McClintock has had solo shows at New Release Gallery, Louis B. James in New York, NY. He has also exhibited in group shows including Mental at Muddguts in Brooklyn, NY; GREEN at the Spring Break Art Fair in New York; Malmo Sessions at Carl Kostyal; and 9999 at The Fireplace Project. Stephen lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.
Alissa McKendrick attended Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI. She has had solo exhibitions at Collaborations, Copenhagen, Denmark; Team Gallery, New York, NY; Real Fine Arts; Brooklyn, NY. Group exhibitions include; Galerie Crévecoeur, Paris, France; 68 Projects, Berlin, Germany; White Columns, New York, NY; Alex Zachary, New York, NY; Greene Naftali, New York, NY; Y2K Group, New York, NY; and Mercy Pictures, Auckland, New Zealand.
Claire Milbrath is a self-taught artist working within painting, sewing, and drawing. Adopting an artistic style reminiscent of naive painters, renewing the coloristic tradition with vignettes relating to unrequited love, sexual fantasies and childhood innocence. Millbrath has exhibited in both solo and group exhibitions at venues such as Steve Turner, Los Angeles, CA; The Hole, New York, NY; Projet Pangée, Mexico City, MX and Marie-Laure Fleisch, Brussels, BE. She is the founding publisher and editor-in-chief of Editorial Magazine, a print journal on contemporary art.
Emily Marie Miller is an emerging artist currently based in the Hudson Valley, NY. In 2013, she received her BFA in Sculpture from the University of Florida, and moved to New York City as a painter in 2015. Miller has exhibited solo shows with Monya Rowe Gallery in New York, NY, Barney Savage Gallery in New York, NY and Unit London in London, UK. Her work has been shown in group exhibitions in Shanghai, Los Angeles, Düsseldorf, and New York City, notably Kasmin Gallery’s 2018 exhibition, Seed, curated by Yvonne Force. Miller is represented by Monya Rowe Gallery.
Luke’ O’Halloran lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. O’Halloran received his BFA from University of Colorado, Boulder. His work has been exhibited at venues such as; Kapp Kapp, New York, NY; Almine Rech, New York, NY; Mary Heaton Vorse House, Provincetown, MA, and featured in ArtForum and Garage Magazine.
Calliope Pavlides is a Greek artist living and working in Los Angeles, CA. Pavlides attended Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI. Her paintings, despite the dark undertones of the subject matter, portray a narrative playfulness with her mark making, brushwork spins, loops, operating in a kind of reckless abandonment to motion. Pavlides has exhibited recently at Real Pain, Los Angeles, CA; Spy Projects, Los Angeles, CA; and Monte Vista Projects, Los Angeles, CA.
Marika Thunder’s lives and works in New York, NY. Her work has been exhibited at venues such as; Nino Mier, Los Angeles, CA; 56 Henry, New York; NY; Public Access, New York, NY and Half Gallery, NY.
Noelia Towers is a Chicago based artist born and Raised in Barcelona. Towers laboriously detailed paintings investigate the relationship between pain and pleasure. Her practice centers around personal experiences like her chronic illness and in most instances the artist uses herself as a subject. Towers has exhibited her work at Woman Made Gallery and Public Works Gallery in Chicago, IL.
Sandy Williams IV is an artist based in Richmond, VA. Willams work revolves around the persistence of memory, the body, and resistance, tasking audiences with agency, in order to generate both public and private opportunities for collaborative engagement. Williams primarily works in sculpture, film, text and public performance. Williams is a recipient of the New York Community Trust Van Lier Fellowship, the VMFA Artist Fellowship, and was a resident at Atlantic Center for the Arts, SOMA (CDMX), ACRE (Chicago), amongst other residencies. They have exhibited at the Institute of Contemporary Art at VCU, the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, The Harnett Museum of Art at the University of Richmond; NADA House (NYC); Springsteen Gallery (Baltimore), New Release (NYC). They have had recent solo exhibitions at Reynolds Gallery (Richmond) and Second Street Gallery (Charlottesville).