New Exhibition: Keepsake
Gathering series for Keepsake Exhibition with Uprise Art
My recent series, Gathering, is on view at Uprise Art in New York City in Keepsake, a group exhibition including Adrian Kay Wong, Anastasia Greer, Blake Aaseby, Bryce Anderson, Bbblob, Chad Kouri, CHIAOZZA, Erik Barthels, Erin Zhao, Jocelyn Tsaih, Karina Bania, Lourenço Providência, Senem Oezdogan, and Tyler Scheidt. In this exhibition, artists reflect on the concept of keepsakes and how an artwork can serve as a vessel to carry a message, memory, or metaphor from the creator. Read more about the exhibition.
The Nut Gatherers (The Hazelnuts), a painting by William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1882), captivated my attention as a young girl when I visited the Detroit Institute of Art in the mid-1980s. Three decades later at age 40, I revisited the work at the museum and was flooded with memory and new insights.
For Keepsake, I determined that my series, Gathering, would contain the experience and message that shared space - between subjects in a painting, between former and current selves, between artist and viewer - can generate novel and collective meaning.
The Nut Gatherers’ two subjects, and the gradation from the top of the painting to its ground, informed an exploration of dualities for my series. I isolated segments of Bouguereau’s painting to create a color palette and suggestion of forms that referenced my early and later encounters with the work.
The two young girls depicted in The Nut Gatherers sat close together in an outdoor setting, their eyes locked in a glance of understanding or a shared secret. In my girlhood, the subjects’ activity had reminded me of the dynamic nature that existed in the shared space between my friends and me. I recognized that the energy generated through gathering is essential to our collective care.
I played with color and form applications on a matte black background and with tonal textures. The resulting differences and points of connection led me to pair the contrasting works in dialogue as diptychs.
L to R: Gathering I, II, III, and IV, available at Uprise Art.
Seeing Bougereau’s work again reminded me of some of my earliest creative impulses. I recognized that a through line of making art throughout my life was an acceptance of an invitation to commune with wonder: to notice what evoked curiosity, and to respond with an interpretation. I reflected on what changed or remained over time, simultaneously seeing through the lenses of youth and maturity.
Keepsake is on view at Uprise Art in New York from November 2–December 22, 2023.
To inquire about the works or the exhibition, please email advisors@upriseart.com.
