PPOW Gallery is ready for summer with an exciting group show opening on July 11th. Curated by gallery's own Eden Deering, Do You Love Me? will feature artists Elliott Jerome Brown Jr., Martine Gutierrez, Gerald Lovell, Reba Maybury, Sophia Narrett, and Kyle Vu–Dunn, who each produced works in various media such as photography, embroidery, acrylic and oil paintings, and drawings.
"Do You Love Me? explores contemporary desires by displaying artworks that double as entreaties for connection, intimacy, and external validation within the context of broader societal power structures." The relationship between those who ask to be loved and those who give love is one of the connecting subjects as seen in the works by Martine Gutierrez. Her performances, photography, and films document her transformations between imagined personas of a subject, artist, and muse.
Martine Gutierrez. Girl Friends (Rosella & Palma #6), 2014. archival inkjet print mounted on Sintra 9 1/2 x 14 1/8 ins. 24.1 x 35.9 cm. Edition of 8. Courtesy of Martine Gutierrez and P•P•O•W, New York
The works also refer to the contemporary climate where private lives become public, which is one of the ongoing themes of Elliott Jerome Brown Jr's photographs. Merging the two, Sophia Narrett's fantastical embroideries explore role-play, the emotional results of escapism, and the evolving nature of identity, by collaging images derived from the Internet into new narratives. Using different types of collaging, a writer, political dominatrix and lecturer, Reba Maybury presents the latest works from The Consequences of His and Hers series.
Reba Maybury. I'll respect her authority, I always had a thing for women in uniform, 2019. Head by the Dutch Wetter, acrylic paint on canvas, apartment in London Fields, 15.03pm, 26.01.19 Body by Superman, acrylic paint on canvas, apartment in Islington, 16.49pm, 27.01.19 Feet by the Indie Music Manager, acrylic paint and acrylic pen on canvas, hotel room, Barbican, 15.23pm, 11.02.19 76 1/2 x 39 ins. 194.3 x 99.1 cm. Courtesy of Reba Maybury P•P•O•W, New York
Technical diversity is best presented in the work by Kyle Vu–Dun who is blurring the lines between sculpture and painting with acrylic paintings applied on epoxy resin, plaster, and foam panels. Not restrained by any specific category and effortlessly shifting between different representational techniques, his captivating reliefs celebrate an often-repressed male sensuality and softness. Also flirting with the sculptural sphere, a self-taught painter Gerald Lovell creates heavily-impastoed portraits whose textured depictions are regularly clashing against the silky ones of their surrounding.––Sasha Bogojev
Do You Love Me? is on show at New York's PPOW Gallery from July 11th through August 9th.