In Situ | New York: Group Show

Marianne Boesky Gallery is pleased to present In Situ, a group exhibition featuring new and recent paintings by thirteen artists: Cecily Brown, Olivia Erlanger, Barnaby Furnas, Jammie Holmes, Forrest Kirk, YoYo Lander, Maud Madsen, Chidinma Nnoli, Collins Obijiaku, Celeste Rapone, Lorna Robertson, Eleanor Swordy and Michaela Yearwood-Dan. Using Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s seminal 1892 text “The Yellow Wallpaper” as a point of departure, In Situ brings together paintings created throughout 2020 that offer reflections of life in isolation as necessitated by the current health crisis – private and still, yet restless and resolute.

In Situ will be shown in two parts: works by the twelve included artists will be on view January 7, 2021 – February 6, 2021 at the gallery’s 507 West 24th Street in New York, and an additional selection of paintings will be highlighted at the gallery’s Aspen location from January 22, 2021 – February 28, 2021.

In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the unnamed narrator is confined to a room in her house as part of a rest cure, a nineteenth century medical treatment that strictly enforced a regimen of bed rest and social isolation. During her weeks in confinement, the narrator’s thoughts are slowly monopolized by the yellow wallpaper that surrounds her.

Grounded by experiences of quarantine due to the pandemic, many of the artists utilized their surroundings to capture extended moments of stillness. Yet the range of paintings in In Situ are more than strict representations of the past year. While some of the work is figurative and depicts creature comforts of domestic spaces, or figures interacting or alone, others portray an occupant’s recurring perspective. The subjects and scenes of the works are not confined by the architecture of their interiors, but rather expand on imagination and the passage of time, offering meaningful depictions of isolation.

In Gilman’s text, the narrator exclaims: “I never saw so much expression in an inanimate thing before, and we all know how much expression they have!” In Situ responds to this sentiment as the presented artists aptly pull inspiration from their own surroundings, embodying the tension between the safety of physical isolation and an urgency in the present moment to act and connect.