Thierry
Goldberg is pleased to present White
Lilies, an online exhibition of works by Nick Farhi, Exene Karros, Spencer
Lai, and Anjuli Rathod. The exhibition will be on view from December 18, 2020
through January 17, 2021.
On
the occasion of someone’s death it is a custom to bring their loved ones
flowers, and perhaps the most common is the white lily: a symbol of purity,
rebirth and hope. In White Lilies, four artists create worlds of potent color
or darkness to contemplate isolation, mourning, and solitude.
Nick
Farhi paints objects that appear alone as if surrounded by silence. In his
still lifes there is a subtle loneliness that envelops everyday objects (like
tableware and tchotchkes) as these are staged without context, and in front of
blurred colors instead of in defined settings. Farhi views typically minor
objects as theatrical storytellers that possess a history of design and allude
to a possible home. They no longer seem to hold a quotidian function. They
become a memento without an owner, a relic of a time past, and consequently an
object devoid of any meaning at all. As with Violists on lunch (2020), a pale-pink Depression glass pitcher and
cups are set on a table. The vessels are empty – parched – almost dying from
lack of use. Though Farhi studies the history of each object, his paintings
serve as studies of light and color: creating the presence of life through the
shimmer of light reflected on glass.
Also
included in this exhibition are Exene Karros’s haunting paintings where she
charts universal symbols and emotions to decode their logic and ponder eternal
questions. In the three presented works, icons such as an hourglass, a pair of dice,
and ‘the scales of justice’ appear to spell out unconscious thoughts or webs of
doom. These icons find their way into paintings like Love, Wisdom, Heaven, Conspiracy (2020), where signifiers float in
a cloud-like thought bubble above a couple’s heads; or in Chart no. 6 (2020), where they are encased in white boxes,
almost as if they are board game tiles in an existential version of The Game of
Life; and in MORALITY (2020), where
fantastical portrayals of heaven and hell are enclosed in a Venn diagram with
their union being Earth.
Spencer
Lai creates monochrome felt assemblages that replicate scenes from art history
and contemporary culture. In Lai’s relief-like appropriations, the scenes from
pre-existing works – like the bouquet of flowers in Joseph (“Pepe”) Vignes’
1972 colored pencil drawing – get replicated into hand-cut forms. These odes
appear as three-dimensional layered silhouettes of their predecessors. The
works by Lai in this exhibition pink
(flowers in vase)(after Vignes) (2018/1972) and accessory (2020) juxtapose Vignes’ innocent and enchanting work on
paper with a violent net-art drawing Lai found on the Internet. In their
jet-black composition, Lai depicts the horrific scene of a woman surrounded by
bystanders as she is carried to be tortured. Scattered across the felt
rectangle are superfluous items like stars, four-leaf clovers, and teddy bears
– playing on the idea of an ‘accessory’ to a crime. This bleak scene feels in
sync with its fatal color, but its soft felt existence is ironic in opposition
to Lai’s hot pink work, where the felt feels perfectly appropriate for such a
cheery image.
In
Anjuli Rathod’s Gut Spiral (2020), a
figure, an intestine-like form, moths, and candles merge into one colorful
swirl of an imagined world or perhaps another level of consciousness. The
figure is “Red”: the protagonist of much of Rathod’s works who is usually seen
or whose presence is felt in the artist’s paintings. Red is ghost-like, the
eyes of a vision in a dream, psychedelic experience, or sci-fi movie. Through
Red, the artist creates portals into worlds and matrixes that do not exist, but
are based in a reality of emotions. In this alternate reality, feelings like
mourning and grieving are seen as bodily, because of their dramatic and highly
charged energy. Though this world is potent with lament, it is a zone meant to
escape this dreary feeling.
Nicholas Farhi (b. 1987, New York, NY) lives
Camden, ME and works in Rockland, ME. He studied at Hunter College, New York,
NY and SUNY Empire State, New York, NY. Farhi has had solo and two-person
exhibitions at Amavi Gallery, Cape Cod, MA; Tilou Fine Art, Brooklyn, NY;
Golsa, Oslo, Norway; Serving The People Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Rod Bianco
Gallery, Oslo, Norway; United Artists Ltd, Marfa, TX; Bill Brady Gallery,
Miami, FL; Neochrome Gallery, Turin, Italy; and Louis B. James, New York, NY. His
work has also been included in group exhibitions at Mana Museum of Contemporary
Art, Jersey City, NJ; Kirkland Gallery, Harvard Graduate School of Design, Cambridge,
MA; Karma International, Los Angeles, CA; Steve Turner Los Angeles, CA;
Shoulder, Los Angeles, CA; Gallery Sade Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA; Leila
Heller Gallery, New York, NY; Hilde Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Proto Gallery,
Hoboken, NJ; Coburn Projects, London, United Kingdom; Ethan Cohen Fine Arts,
New York, NY; Jonathan Viner Gallery, London, United Kingdom; Brand New
Gallery, Milan, Italy; Xi Garden, New York, NY; Orgy Park, Brooklyn, NY; and
Robert Blumenthal Gallery, East Hampton, NY. This is Farhi’s first show with
Thierry Goldberg Gallery.
Exene Karros (b. 1995, Morristown, NJ) lives
and works in Philadelphia, PA. She holds a BFA in painting from the Rhode
Island School of Design, Providence, RI. Karros’ work has been included in group
exhibitions at Sinkhole Project, Baltimore, MD; Whaam! Gallery, Miami, FL; Mery
Gates, Brooklyn, NY; Woods-Gerry Gallery, Rhode Island School of Design,
Providence, RI; Benson Hall Gallery, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence,
RI; and Friend Gallery, Providence, RI. This is her first show with Thierry
Goldberg Gallery.
Spencer
Lai (b. 1991, Sarawak, Malaysia) lives and works in Melbourne,
Australia. They hold a BFA from Victorian College for the Arts, Southbank,
Australia and RMT University, Melbourne, Australia. Lai has had solo
exhibitions at Kimberly-Klark, Ridgewood, NY; Fort Delta, Melbourne, Australia;
TCB Art.INC, Melbourne, Australia; George Paton Gallery, Melbourne, Australia; Blindside,
Melbourne, Australia; and c3 Contemporary, Melbourne, Australia. Their work has
also been included in group exhibitions at West Space, Melbourne, Australia;
Neon Parc, Melbourne, Australia; Mejia, Melbourne, Australia; Discordia
Gallery, Melbourne, Australia; Constance ARI, Hobart, Australia; COMA Gallery,
Darlinghurst, Australia; David Gallery, Melbourne, Australia; Second Space
Projects, Melbourne, Australia; Low Standards, Oslo, Norway; Lubov, New York,
NY; Sydney Sydney, Sydney, Australia; Gertrude Glasshouse, Melbourne,
Australia; OnCurating Project Space, Zürich, Switzerland; Arts Project
Australia, Melbourne, Australia; Honeymoon Suite, Melbourne, Australia; Irene
Rose, Melbourne, Australia; Australian National Capital Artists, Canberra,
Australia; Rear View, Melbourne, Australia; Gertrude Contemporary, Preston,
Australia; TarraWarra Museum of Arts, Melbourne, Australia; Punk Café,
Melbourne, Australia; offsite location, Tokyo, Japan; LON Gallery, Melbourne,
Australia; Margaret Lawrence Gallery, Melbourne, Australia; and VCA Student
Gallery, Melbourne, Australia. This is Lai’s first show with Thierry Goldberg
Gallery.
Anjuli Rathod (b. 1987, Norristown, PA) lives
and works in New York, NY. She holds a BFA from the School of the Museum of
Fine Arts at Tufts University, Boston, MA. Rathod has had solo and two-person
exhibitions at Y2K group, New York, NY; Interstate Projects, Brooklyn, NY; Safe
Gallery, Brooklyn NY; and Project Pangée, Montreal, Canada. Her work has also
been included in group exhibitions at Kristen Lorello Gallery, New York; NY; Rubber
Factory, New York, NY; Selenas Mountain, Queens, NY; Tiger Strikes Asteroid,
Brooklyn, NY; Teen Party, Brooklyn, NY; Fisher Parrish, New York, NY; Western
Exhibitions, Chicago, IL; Atlanta Contemporary, Atlanta, GA; Knockdown Center,
Maspeth, NY; Trestle Gallery, Brooklyn, NY; Amos Eno Gallery, Brooklyn, NY;
Samson Projects, Boston, MA; and 57 Delle Project Space, Roxbury Crossing, MA.
This is Rathod’s first show with Thierry Goldberg Gallery.
For more information please email or
call the gallery at + 1. 212.228.7569 or info@thierrygoldberg.com.