Thierry Goldberg is pleased to present "Mouse Trap," Natalie Terenzini's first solo exhibition with the gallery. The exhibition opens on April 7th, with a reception from 6 to 8pm and will run through May 27th, 2022.
Exploring the isolated moments of introspection, the works in "Mouse Trap" reveal an unspoken universal experience of womanhood. Terenzini's subject, an alter ego of herself, moves through each composition engaging in intimate acts that slowly unveil her uncensored character. The works as a whole play with perception, often upending expected depictions of femininity, favoring authenticity over fantasy.
In Medicine Cabinet (2022), vivid hues of blue, green, yellow and purple illuminate the figure. Standing undressed before a bathroom medicine cabinet, her voluptuous subject twists slightly toward the viewer. She peers outwardly as her right-hand positions tweezers dangerously close to the nipple of her left breast. As the facade of bright colors starts to dissolve, the viewer becomes cognizant of the subject's purging intention. There is a look of embarrassed resignation that falls upon her subject's face, a sense that we have intruded upon her intimate rite of self- optimization.
In Making an Appearance (2021), we encounter the subject from behind. She rests herself upon the tub, her body partially obscured by a neon green shower curtain. There is a voyeuristic quality to this encounter. The subject, fully engrossed in the act of blow-drying her hair, is completely unaware of the viewer's imperceptible intrusion. In other works such as Aftermath (2022), her subject lays upon her bed stripped bare, caught in the midst of lighting a cigarette. Her side gaze charges towards the viewer, grievously accepting their presence and participation. As Terenzini ushers you through each intimate moment, there is the sense that her subject becomes increasingly more comfortable, allowing the viewer to move from voyeur to companion.
Mouse Trap (2021), displays Terenzini's subject at the height of personal indulgence. She lounges nude upon a bright orange carpet with her legs unabashedly spread out before her. Unconcerned with the world outside herself, she enlists in a bacchanal of satiating vices. Her hair tumbles down in front of her obscuring her face as she flips through an adult magazine. A mouse scurries behind her highlighting the engaged mouse trap that sits ever so slightly offset between her legs, the penultimate symbol of a baited trap luring in the easily persuaded with the promise of reward. There is an element of peril and suspense exhibited, the set mousetrap serving as a memento mori, a sinister reminder of the nature of her vices.
Terenzini's works vacillate between intrusion and bewilderment. Her subject is often presented alone, lost among her thoughts, even when accompanied. Terenzini's application of a bright jovial pallet effortlessly captivates the viewer, luring them unbeknownst into the unsightly fodder of her subject's reality. Highlighter pill bottles, half-lit cigarettes, and undesirable behaviors and blemishes become an appendage to the subject, an external manifestation of the internal self. Terenzini's figure, a baited trap in her self has come undone. Marked by remnants of self- improvement, she revels in the indulgence of her private rituals, imperfections, and vices, rapturously unaware of when the trap is set to snap.
Natalie Terenzini (b. 1996 San Diego, California) lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. She holds a BFA from the Laguna College of Art + Design and an MFA from the New York Academy of Art. Terenzini has participated in group exhibitions at Vin Vin, Vienna Austria, and LIA programme, Leipzig Germany, among others.
For more information please call or email the gallery at + 1. 212.228.7569 or info@thierrygoldberg.com.
