NEW YORK, NY.- Anna Zorina Gallery is presenting I Love You. What’s Your Name, the first U.S. solo exhibition of Australian painter Jordy Kerwick. Kerwick’s latest body of work is comprised of still lives and abstract compositions that investigate the power of lust. The artist’s unique treatment of classic subject matter offers a contemporary perspective into the universal theme.

Kerwick translates three-dimensional space into flattened compositions of pattern and color. The artist applies thick brushstrokes of vivid tones against layers of coarse collage elements to build richly textured surfaces of compelling depth. Upon close inspection, text and figurative shapes appear from within the broad swaths of color.

Kerwick’s raw style combines art historical references with images of symbolic objects to revive classic Vanitas still lives into the realm of contemporary art. A bouquet of lilies recurs throughout the work as an established metaphor for the Virgin Mary and purity within contrarily Freudian contexts. Vases of flowers are presented as a central focal point surrounded by organic shapes that take the form of indulgences that offer ephemeral intoxication like pills and cigarettes. Supporting these vases are stacks of books with witty, often music-related titles that allude to the sensory pleasures that inspired each painting. Kerwick incorporates specific iconography throughout this series to spark primal responses tied to lust. The artist depicts serpents and predatory cats to instill sensuality, fear, stealth and independence while mythical beings including unicorns and angels are used to suggest intrinsic desires and ventures for things that simply do not exist, like requited love from an exotic dancer.

JORDY KERWICK (b. 1982, Melbourne, Australia) is a self-taught artist currently based in Albi, France. Having started painting in 2016, Kerwick is rapidly gaining recognition on the international art stage with recent exhibitions including a dual show Fatal Purity at Masahiro Maki Gallery in both Paris and Tokyo; Sweep the leg, Johnny at Pt. 2 Gallery in Oakland, CA; Diary of an Introvert at Delphian Gallery, London; and Outro at Piermarq, Sydney.