BY SYLVIA SHOSHAN
If you need a new exhibition to add to your list, it’s time to check out the Marianne Boesky Gallery in New York. Its latest show presents work by artist Celeste Rapone in an exhibition titled “Some Weather.” Exploring aging in a way that is both serious and humorous, this new opening is a refreshing take on the artist’s anxieties.
For Rapone’s second solo exhibition with the gallery, the Chicago-based painter showcases a new selection of works that examine her views and feelings about middle age. With autobiographical details, references to art history and artefacts from daily life, you can expect a deep unpacking of the millennial condition.
Contorted limbs push the boundaries of abstraction and disfiguration, while 11 new paintings move away from Rapone’s usual saturated and lively color palette to an unusually muted one. The artist refers to these hues as “diet colors,” taken from the flood of catalogues and ads she received of “sensible clothing and tasteful home decor” as she approached her 40s. The paintings see figures attending to mundane tasks; cooking, bathing and cleaning, and are featured in the drab colors. Alongside these, you’ll also find contrasting scenes of women relaxing in hot tubs, drink glasses in hand, to explore the duality of this life stage.
While it’s often said that conversations regarding the weather are the dullest, it’s exactly this that makes it perfect for metaphorical use. The name “Some Weather” can refer to the height of summer or the worst of a storm, adding a sense of whimsy to the paintings. In embracing the light-hearted, Rapone reminds us that anxieties, much like storms, will also pass.
