NEW YORK, NY.- Thierry Goldberg is presenting They’re On to You, a group exhibition of works by Caroline Absher, Grace Bromley, Briana McLaurin, Anisa Rakaj, Dylan Rose Rheingold, and Natalie Strait. The exhibition runs from March 4th through April 2nd, 2022.
They’re On to You brings together six women who are currently exploring aspects of figuration and identity conception in their practice. Collectively the works contemplate the multitudes of layers, roles, and relationships that play upon the female body.
Caroline Absher favors the subjective and serendipitous. Drawing inspiration from canonical art history, films, photography and the deeply personal, she creates works that reverberate with an innate notion of familiarity. Absher works in layers of colors, generating gradients and underlying paintings that imbed depth through the occurrence of transparency. Exploring both color and value Absher allows instinct to guide her process, often vacillating between abstract and figurative practices. Her voluminous figures frequently depicted in moments of openness and comfortability, emanate a gentle and vivacious strength. Fascinated by the ability of the female form to express fluidity, Absher’s works brim with intersecting moments of tenderness, vulnerability, and confidence.
Grace Bromley’s pallet of blushing pinks, cloudy purples, and cool silky blues generate the overall disposition and physicality of her figures. She meticulously builds up the surface of her works with thin layers of soft-hued colors. These gentle hues paired with her unassailable figures produce narratives that are simultaneously ethereal and pugnacious. Unaware of the nature of their bodies, her figures seem to take control of the canvas as they actively engage in the performance of their tasks. Bromley's subjects relish in their dichotomy, exuding both strength and emotional vulnerability as they adoringly hunt, haphazardly fish, and begrudgingly bathe. The resulting body of work immerses the viewer into a whimsical environment that radiates with multifaceted female archetypes.
Combining reference photos of family members, friends, and places, Briana McLaurin paints vibrant portraits that serve as an homage to her personal experiences and upbringing. McLaurin alternates between traditional portraiture and collective scenes connecting her figures to each other, as well as to the viewer, through an intricate network of glares and glances. Drawing on personal relationships, especially those with her mother and sisters, McLaurin's figures come across vivid, their individual personas constructed through a series of visual signifiers. Color, in particular, is used as a defining aspect, as she highlights each face with a unique arrangement of greens, blues, reds, oranges, purples, and yellows. McLaurin’s work is suffused with an inherent relatability, a shared history, that can be decoded through recognizable objects, facial expressions, and actions.
Influenced by Baroque art, photographs, film stills, and her father's work with mosaics, Anisa Rakaj creates intimate portraits that adulate the female form and embrace embellishment. Rakaj methodically arranges her compositions, intentionally suspending her figures in an alluring stillness. Utilizing theatrical lighting, body positioning, and ornamentation, Rakaj imbues a sense of drama into her work. Each subject, conscious of the viewer, hangs upon the precipice of action, reveling in the chance of voyeurism. There is raw power exhibited as her subjects preside ownership over their sensuality, gaining fulfillment through their premeditated presentation. Confronting superficial eroticism, Rakaj’s works explore issues of agency, ownership, and censorship in the representation of female sexuality.
Dylan Rose Rheingold draws from personal experiences, family histories, and abstract scenarios to expose the surreptitious nature of girlhood. Utilizing broad gestural strokes and a multitude of mediums, Rheingold infuses her work with both a sense of immediacy and nostalgia. Her figures cascade through time immersed in mundane and somewhat lackadaisical everyday moments. Wholly engaged in these seemingly fleeting moments, her figures tend to express a certain abandonment of self-awareness. Rheingold achieves a joyous, and at times humorous, representation of her subject's uninhibited sensibilities. Oscillating among sentimentality, memory, and imagination, she creates narratives that allow her subjects to reveal their characters and divulge their personal histories.
Natalie Strait’s statuesque figures exude unshakeable confidence. Working from vernacular images of women, Strait combines selfies, candid pictures of friends, and vintage pornography as inspiration for her subjects. There is a performative aspect to each of her figures, an acknowledgment of the viewer that is both playful and welcoming. Strait establishes the space of the canvas by working with variations of light, color, and temperature, allowing broad singular washes of red, purple, and yellow to set the tone for each piece. Savoring the perfect imperfections, Strait’s subjects are endowed with small interventions of reality. The addition of a mismatched sock or a rogue electrical cord breaks up the illusion, the expectation of the graceful and put- together female subject. Rooting her subjects in moments of confidence, self-presentation, and vulnerability, Strait develops narratives that upend preconceived notions of womanhood.
Caroline Absher (b. 1994 Greenville, South Carolina) lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. Absher holds a BFA in Painting and a BA in Art History from Pratt Institute. Absher has a forthcoming solo exhibition at Andrea Festa Gallery, Rome, Italy, and has had a previous solo exhibition at The Cabin, Los Angeles, CA. Absher has participated in group exhibitions at Green Family Art Foundation, Dallas, TX; Martha’s Contemporary, Austin, TX; Daniel Raphael Gallery, London, UK; Blue Shop Cottage, London, UK; The Hole, New York, NY; and Lichtundfire Gallery, New York, NY.
Grace Bromley (b. 1994 Chicago, Illinois) lives and works in Queens, New York. Bromley holds a BFA in Painting from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Bromley has had solo shows at Judith B Salon, Chicago, IL, and Maybe Sunday Collective, Chicago, IL. Bromley has participated in group exhibitions at Target Gallery, Richmond, VA; The Living Gallery, New York, NY; 3042, Chicago, IL; Morpho Gallery, Chicago, IL, amongst others.
Briana McLaurin (b. 1998, New Jersey) lives and works in New York, NY. She holds a BA in Fine Arts from Mason Gross School of Art and Design at Rutgers University. McLaurin has exhibited at Thierry Goldberg Gallery as well as participated in group exhibitions at Mason Gross Gallery, New Brunswick, NJ, and Brick and Mortar Gallery, Easton, PA.
Anisa Rakaj (b. 1997 in Albania) lives and works in Commerce Township, Michigan. Rakaj holds a BFA in Fine Arts from Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. This is her first gallery exhibition.
Dylan Rose Rheingold (b. 1997 New York, NY) lives and works in New York, NY. Rheingold holds a BFA from Syracuse University and is currently working towards her MFA at the School of Visual Arts. Rheingold has had a solo exhibition with Selnas Mountain, Ridgewood, NY. Rheingold has participated in group shows at China Academy of Art, Hangzhou, China; London Paint Club, London, UK; New Collectors Gallery, New York, NY; UUU Art Collective, Rochester, NY; Sow & Tailor, Los Angeles, CA; Ki Smith Gallery, New York, NY; 208 Bowery Gallery, New York, amongst others.
Natalie Strait (b.1997 Phoenix, Arizona) lives and works in Phoenix, Arizona. Strait holds an MFA from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Strait has had a solo exhibition with Eric Fischl Gallery, Phoenix, Arizona. Strait has participated in group shows at Shin Gallery, New York, NY; Lump Gallery, Raleigh, NC; Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill, NC; and Contemporary Art Museum, Raleigh, NC amongst others.
