First monograph dedicated to the young American painter, whose expressive and colorful universe draws on the everyday life in the margins, from bohemians to non-conformists. The publication also
presents the Gray's theatrical works and associates the artist's two
practices.
This catalogue on the work of Georgia Gardner Gray is the first
comprehensive presentation of her artistic practice. In addition to
painting, this also includes writing plays, both of which are presented in
the book. The artist's own expressive way of painterly reflecting on
scenes from everyday life is illustrated by numerous color illustrations
of her works. In addition, views from exhibitions, for example in the
Kunsthalle Lingen and the Kunstverein in Hamburg, as well as more recently
in the Galerie Croy Nielsen in Vienna, show that Georgia Gardner Gray
always presents her paintings in a staged manner. In addition, photographs
of her theatre performances and the plays written by the artist illuminate
the diversity of this area of her practice. A text by the author Steven Warwick on the exhibition at the Kunsthalle Lingen and a conversation
between its director Meike Behm and Georgia Gardner Gray provide an
intensive insight into the areas of her art.
“Whilst Gray would resolutely state her works aren't ‘about’ anything, she
plays with tropes of feminine figures and dandiness in relation to
gendered preconceptions of (feminine) performativity. Gray is foremost a
painter and prefers not to be defined by her gender.”—Steven Warwick
Published following the artist's exhibition at the Kunsthalle Lingen, as part of the Lingen Art Prize 2018, from September 15 to November 11, 2018.
Georgia Gardner Gray (born 1988 in New York City, lives and works in
Berlin) works mainly in the medium of painting,
but always presents her paintings in correspondence with objects. In her
colourful works, Georgia Gardner Gray reflects codes of behaviour based on
the characters on the canvas and questions social conventions. Her works
are in the tradition of classical genre painting because she paints
everyday scenes and confronts them with contemporary lifestyles of
different characters such as punks, groupies or street musicians. In her
works, Georgia Gardner Gray also negotiates hierarchies between the
sexes, male and female vices and actually fixed role assignments.
The artist conveys the unconventional attitude of the Bohemians as
exemplary for the current development of a society that prefers
experimental forms of life and operates with the ambivalence between
self-determination, attitude and freedom.
