NEW YORK, NY.- CHART is presenting Rose-Tinted Glasses, a solo exhibition by Shona McAndrew, her third at the gallery. Occupying both floors of the gallery, Rose-Tinted Glasses will debut ten paintings and a new larger-than-life-sized sculpture. There will be an opening reception on Thursday, February 23, from 68 pm, and the exhibition will remain on view through April 1, 2023.
Following her two previous solo shows at CHART, Muse and Haven, in which McAndrew created intimate portraits of sitters sourced from the artists personal life or social media, Rose-Tinted Glasses finds the artist turning toward self-reflective imagery. Here McAndrew presents paintings of herself and her partner, in various states of repose and undress, luxuriating in each others presence. Drawing inspiration from classical compositions by Old Masters, McAndrews newest paintings imbue scenes with a certain comfortability and warmth.
As Charity Coleman writes in the catalogue essay, Shonas new paintings loosely summon an art historical lineage, borrowing from canonical works by Gentileschi, Caravaggio, Bernini, and Velázquez. [
] They are downtempo homages to sensate connectivity, and there is a quiet drama there.
Physicality is at the forefront of these works lovers limbs lounge in nude embraces: hands grip flesh, albeit with reassuring tenderness. The unabashed nature of these bodily reveals shows an artist comfortable in their own skin. As with past portrait sitters, McAndrew is subverting the authority of the art historical canon to empower her subjects, only in Rose-Tinted Glasses, the artist grants herself a sense of hard-won self-acceptance and autonomy.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue featuring an essay by Charity Coleman.
Shona McAndrew (b. 1990) was born in Paris and lives and works in Philadelphia. She holds an MFA in Painting from the Rhode Island School of Design and a BA in Psychology and Painting from Brandeis University. She has had solo exhibitions at Art Omi, Ghent, NY (2021), The Abroms-Engel Institute of the Visual Arts at UAB, Birmingham, AL (2021), the Moore College of Art and Design, Philadelphia, PA (2020); CHART, New York, NY (2019, 2021, 2023); and Spring/Break Art Show, New York, NY (2019). She has also exhibited in group shows at Nassima Landau, Tel Aviv, IL; the New York Academy of Art, New York, NY; wallspaceplease, Dubai, UAE; Newchild Gallery, Antwerp, BE; Kunstraum Potsdam, Potsdam, DE; Lyles & King, New York, NY, Taymour Grahne Projects, London, UK; Stems Gallery, Brussels, BE; Mindy Solomon Gallery, Miami, FL; Allouche Benias Gallery, Athens, GR; and Museum of Sex, New York, NY.