We: Works by Jovan C. Speller + Alida Wilkinson at Pen + Brush NYC
We: Works by Jovan C. Speller + Alida Wilkinson
January 18th - February 24th, 2024
Pen + Brush Gallery | 29 E 22nd St | New York
“Pen + Brush is excited to present We a two-person exhibition of significant works by artists Jovan C. Speller and Alida Wilkinson. This exhibition, on view from January 18 – February 24, is the first large-scale presentation of works by Speller in New York and will unveil new, never-before-seen (or exhibited) work by Wilkinson. We showcases individual arcs and noteworthy works by both artists while highlighting parallel themes and conversations. Both Speller and Wilkinson investigate and take care to document relationships, vulnerability, and the nuanced ways society portrays communities and groups it deems as “other”.” - excerpt from press release by curator Parker Daley Garcia
A Self Apart opens at Slag Gallery
A Self Apart
Alida Wilkinson
January 27 - March 5, 2022
Opening Reception: Thursday, January 27, 6-8 PM
Slag Gallery is pleased to present A Self Apart, a series of paintings by Alida Wilkinson. This will be Wilkinson's first solo show with Slag Gallery, NY.
In A Self Apart, Alida Wilkinson presents three series of life size works which imagine the many selves a person inhabits, releases, and protects. These series trace the evolution of Wilkinson’s figurative work, from monochrome and unanchored installations, to layered and desaturated wall-based works, to vivid single layer portraits.
Wilkinson draws from a range of art historical sources; her vertical formats and watery inks stem from an early and enduring interest in Japanese sumi-e scrolls, her stark likenesses and impressionistic strokes evoke John Singer Sargent’s monumental portraits, and elements of installation and layering are inspired by Ann Hamilton’s immersive works.
Wilkinson’s use of liquid ink and water on mylar alternates between sharp, intimate detailing and organic chaos. The unpredictable nature of her chosen medium lends a simmering, volatile energy to each work. Using herself, her girlfriend, and her close friends as subjects, Wilkinson captures a vulnerable aliveness in each figure. Her life size figures elicit a visceral connection with the viewer with their gazes, and her layered works provoke both a desire to see what lies beneath the top layer, and a reluctance to touch the work. Wilkinson is interested in this tension between viewer and painting, especially in the context of women as subject. Her paintings prompt both connection and confrontation; they grant the viewer access to each subject’s hidden selves, at the same time as they give agency to the subjects.
Solo show "The space of a year" opens at McCray Gallery
Group Exhibition 'SCAPES' at Slag Gallery
Solo show in Rutland VT concealed
Installation Prints for sale through Pen + Brush Gallery
I had the pleasure of speaking about the work I made during my residency with Rich Alcott. Click here to see the footage!
77Art Residency Interview with Rich Alcott
77ART Artist Residency
I am pleased to announce that I am one of 13 artists selected to participate in the 77ART Artist Residency in Rutland, Vermont this August. I am excited to have this month to create in a new space. Stay tuned!
Read more about the residency here.
Work featured in "Furies, Fairies, Visionaries" at Pen + Brush Gallery, NYC
Curatorial Statement by Alice Gray Stites: Furies, Fairies, Visionaries features works by thirty artists utilizing the visual languages of both fantasy and abstraction to claim and create space. Addressing gender, age, and sexuality; the evolution of urban and natural environments; the impact of technology, and more, these artists articulate profound, incisive, perspectives on current issues and conditions. Inspired by personal experiences, popular culture, concerns about climate change and socio-political inequities, as well as by formal and philosophical explorations of the nature of space and perception, these works demonstrate the vital need for women’s visions and voices to be seen and heard. Whether navigating interior, imaginative realms or exterior, physical reality, women artists are taking and making more space in the struggle to create a more inclusive, equitable world.
New work in "scaled UP" at Deanna Evans Projects
“Deanna Evans Projects is excited to announce scaled UP. In response to the previous exhibition, SCALE, which focused solely on small-scale works, scaled UP features only large-scale pieces for the very first time in the space. The overall aim is to question how work should be installed and what an apartment gallery can show.
This show takes full advantage of every inch of wall space, even some ceiling space, which encourages the viewer to be fully immersed in the exhibition. Placing large-scale works in a small domestic space leads to conflict of understanding. Is this a commercial space? Private space? Or the ever-expanding hybrid space? Overall, this exhibition is designed to throw out some of the unwritten rules related to what can be shown in small space and what is considered a gallery.”
FACE New York Featured on The Huffington Post
Read the piece here!
FACE New York Featured on TOPIC
This February, FACE New York, an art project I created in 2015 to challenge the anonymity of homelessness, was featured on TOPIC. To see the short videos and the images, click the links below!
Solo Show at Corridor Gallery
CONNECT... curated by Oshun Layne opened at Corridor Gallery of Rush Arts Philanthropic on January 21st, 2018. This was my first solo show in Brooklyn. Thank you to all who came out!
