Kate Meissner: Chromasome
Exhibition Dates: September 6 - October 21
39 White Street, Tribeca
1969 Gallery is pleased to present Chromasome, Kate Meissner’s first solo exhibition at the gallery. This exhibition consists of new paintings and works on paper by the artist, opening in conjunction with Meissner’s debut solo booth at The Armory Show. Meissner’s paintings depict human subjects of highly ambiguous societal identity and material nature. In compressed, luridly-lit spaces, these bodies pose and contort, possibly for the viewer’s pleasure while potentially consumed by ecstasy or pain. The exhibition title itself, a clever amalgamation of "chroma", signifying color intensity, and "chromosome", referring to the organizing code of bodily structure, fuses Meissner’s optical and psychological agendas.
Meissner’s paintings are populated by multiple species: idealized feminine forms rendered in supple gradients, non-normative and emphatically fleshy beings with prosthetic appendages, and almost-alien creatures for whom a digitally-inflected perfection of surface becomes uncanny. Works such as Chromasome and Lure convey Meissner’s interest in the striking proximity of erotic voyeurism and morbid fascination, presenting odalisques and laboratory specimens as cohabitants of simultaneously decadent and antiseptic spaces. Nightclub VIP rooms, hospitals, and theaters inform Meissner’s settings - all places where being seen, watched, and examined have distinct and intense psychological consequences. The figurative element is always tenuous, made strange by unnatural light, shifting depictions of skin, atypical anatomy, and highly ambiguous motivations. These subjects might be seductive or anxiety-inducing, but they never reveal themselves as fully human.
Meissner’s meticulous process draws upon many influences. Small, intricately constructed physical maquettes, found and staged photography, and digitally manipulated and created images are all utilized as source material. Meissner’s work is also highly informed by contemporary cinema - in particular, David Lynch’s color-saturated scandalous melodramas and David Cronenberg’s psychological and physical distortions of flesh. Through her fusion of traditional naturalism, technologically-derived imaging, and lush cinematic affect, Meissner explores the beautiful and grotesque in paintings that are as unnerving as they are seductive.
For inquiries, please contact:
Amanda Barker | e: amanda@1969gallery.com
About 1969 Gallery
Founded in September 2016, 1969 is a contemporary art gallery in Manhattan’s Tribeca neighborhood. Through solo / group / external exhibitions and art fair presentations, the Gallery has cultivated the careers of its represented artists and a broader community of artists primarily devoted to painting.
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