12/5/2004
Two exhibitions
Rare, New York
Main Exhibition Space: In her third solo exhibition at Rare, titled Scarlets in Ghent, Xiomara De Oliver presents visually opulent paintings that are saturated with psychologically feminine subjects. Rare Plus: Karsten Krejcarek's installation Daniela depicts a failed tennis match as a metaphor for emotional refuge and irreconcilable relations.
Main Exhibition Space: In her third solo exhibition at RARE, titled Scarlets in Ghent, Xiomara De Oliver presents visually opulent paintings that are saturated with psychologically feminine subjects.
RARE PLUS: Karsten Krejcarek's installation Daniela depicts a failed tennis match as a metaphor for emotional refuge and irreconcilable relations.
In contrast to the booty queens and misogynist rap-masters of our day, Xiomara De Oliver's new paintings are symbolically and literally filled with praise of the feminine. She upholds her female figures in decadent settings: beaches; luxurious rooms; lush, ambient, semi-paradisiacal gardens. Painted in a manner that balances the naive and the expressionistic, her work demands to be read intuitively. Depicting only women, and surrounding them with metaphorically female objects, she creates realms that are visually opulent and sexually charged. Seemingly utopian, her paintings engage the viewer with their beauty, only to belie their intensely psychological content.
In Queen Me (2004), a large figure (self-portrait) is surrounded by smaller equally fertile females in a luxurious and tropical bedroom. The skewed perspective and figure/ground relationships are decidedly indebted to Indian miniatures. The pictorial results encourage a psychological and symbolic interpretation of the work. The central figure, the queen, is attended to, her portrait on the wall reiterating her importance. She is adorned with a rose on her ankle and perches among three labia-like sets of curtains while eating rings of calamari, testament to the sea, which emphasizes her own fecundity.
Similarly fertile is Xiomara's use of color, as evinced in I Never Got to Do a Spa Weekend in Palm Springs (2004). A vivid field of blues and greens creates an atmosphere reminiscent of Qing Dynasty landscapes. This undulating space is dotted with similarly fecund female figures indulging in bright red strawberries. Mirroring this opulence are flowering trees, beds, and red bathtubs. Some figures rest on white towels, cleansed, while others flop about within the garden paradise.
This is the artist's third one-person show at RARE. Xiomara currently is participating in the Brooklyn Museum's Open House, and exhibits regularly at MW Projects in London and at Galerie Anne de Villepoix in Paris. She lives in Brooklyn and works in Manhattan.
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In RARE PLUS, Karsten Krejcarek creates a tableau of calamity, half-scaled, in which a lone female figure lies sprawled on a green tennis court with racket and balls by her side. Her diminutive size and disjointed posture implies a crestfallen state of tactical emotional withdrawal. Using tennis as a metaphor for interpersonal relationships, this installation suggests the nature of botched adoration, the demoralizing quality of tormented loss, and the resulting incapacity for reconciliation. This is Karsten's first one-person exhibition at RARE.
May 13 - June 12, 2004
Opening Night Reception, Thursday, May 13, 6-8 PM @ RARE, 521 West 26th Street, NYC(take E or C train to the 23rd Street stop)
For additional information, please contact Kadar Brock @ 212.268.1520
Gallery Hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 11-6, and Monday by appointment.
Image:
Scarlets in Ghent, 2004
Mixed media on canvas
76" x 80"
Rare
521 West 26th Street
New York, New York 10001
phone: 212.268.1520
fax: 212.268.1523