Thierry Goldberg Gallery is pleased to present In Waiting, an online exhibition of works by Alessandra Acierno, Sonia Langouev, and Zack Sanyour. The exhibition will be on view from August 20th to September 14th, 2024.
In Waiting brings together three artists who explore the complexities of interaction. Capturing moments fraught with tension and ambiguity, the three artists reveal the undertones that define human relationships. Challenging viewers to reconsider how they perceive and engage with others, the exhibition offers a reflective space to confront our own roles within the dynamics of connection, power, and intention.
Alessandra Acierno’s work addresses the tension of the encounter, exploring the banalities and absurdities of interactions between beings. With deep hues and textured strokes, she estranges simple interaction into alien unknowns. “Just a Boy and His Cock, 2024” is a portrait of a young man in a field of withered trees and a red sky. Standing in for the right side of his face is a rooster. Its defiant stare contrasts with the boy’s only visible feature, his left eye, which gazes forlornly into the distance. This strange amalgam of the subjects captures the dissonance between identity and perception, as the boundary between human and animal blurs. Acierno’s painting evokes a sense of unease, as the familiar—a boy and his rooster—becomes something uncanny, challenging the viewer to reconsider the nature of identity, connection, and the spaces we inhabit.
The four works of Sonia Langouev force confrontation between viewer and subject in a combative rumination on intimacy, consent, and voyeurism. Washed out browns and grays lull viewers into a sleepy ease, suddenly disrupted by a shocking red lip or a dark expectant stare. The eponymous painting of this exhibition, “In Waiting, 2024,” depicts two young girls sitting at a table, staring at the viewer across from them. They sit patiently, but their expressions, both expectant and accusatory, blur the line between innocence and something more disquieting. A plant on the table, almost serpentine in its form, mirrors the underlying tension and writhes under the weight of unspoken demands. In all of Languoev’s works, the viewer becomes complicit in ambiguous dynamics, forced to confront the discomfort of unresolved conflict and unyielding scrutiny.
Zack Sanyour’s paintings are doused in humid greens and reds, glowing with ambiguity and unheard words. These atypical hues provide each with a cinematic quality that leaves viewers to imagine and uncover the context surrounding each suspended moment. In “Luna, 2024,” a woman stands in the dim light of her doorway, opening it for a man, who gazes furtively into the space before him. The woman’s posture—partially defensive, partially inviting—suggests a vulnerability that charges the scene with uneasy tension. The glow of the green paint casts an otherworldly aura over the scene, blurring the line between reality and something more dreamlike. This painting captures the unknowable intentions which fill the space between the two figures, leaving the viewer to decipher the meaning of this interaction.
Alessandra Acierno (b. 1994, Charleston, SC) lives and works in Tel Aviv. She holds a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art, and an MFA from Bezalel Academy of Art and Design. Her work was previously included in exhibitions at Maya Gallery, Tel Aviv; Tagli Gallery, London, UK; and Inferno Gateway, Baltimore, MD, among others.
Sonia Langouev (b. 2001, Santa Cruz, CA) lives and works in New York, NY. She received a BFA from Pratt Institute. Her work was previously exhibited at Susan Eley Fine Art, Hudson, NY.
Zack Sanyour (b. 2002, New York, NY) lives and works in Providence, RI. He is currently pursuing a BFA in painting at the Rhode Island School of Design. His work was previously exhibited at Zolla/Lieberman Gallery, Chicago, IL.