GROUP EXHIBITION

Organized by independent curator William Zhao, All Walks of Life meditates on the nuances and subjectivities of daily life in the face ofglobalization. The vibrant works in the show—which range from figurations to landscapes to semi-abstract, lyrical tableaus—explore whatit means to be an individual, both bodily and spiritually, in the present moment. Offering a focused look at contemporary painting, thisexhibition centers on collisions of uncanniness and familiarity in experiences of people, places, and things.

Included in All Walks of Life are two new paintings by Farin in which bizarre details cut across everyday scenes. Exploring the ways thatillusions of the self, of safety, prosperity, and community are sustained by our belief systems, Farin’s boldly colored, theatrically stagedfigurations are rife with mystery and ambiguity. Proux, meanwhile, depicts fragmented limbs and faces in his up-close figurations, withbodies intersecting and overlapping in carefully posed contortions—the artist has said that he aims to engage viewers of his work with ‘avisual and intellectual enigma running through the image.’

Slappey’s surreal depictions of intertwining body parts in Carpet of Needles (如坐針氈) (2023) and Emerald Strike (2023), both on view inAll Walks of Life, are underpinned by a distinct sense of disquiet that the artist has characterized as ‘a kind of quiet violence.’ Mining thecruelty and pain baked into idealized notions of femininity, the artist is known for her opulent, dynamic figurations that belie the darknessof their content.

Drawing inspiration the varied images he collects as part of his practice, Cudahy creates intimate, deeply personal figurations that examinethe present through the lens of the past, forging a portrait of intergenerational queer experience. In Treiber’s otherworldly landscapes,negotiations of space and enactments of interiority and exteriority speak to the shapeshifting nature of perception.

Levinthal’s paintings, on the other hand, often feel like film stills, with figures moving through the rhythms of their everyday lives. Sheimbues her depictions of characters in ordinary, seemingly mundane situations with emotional and poetic depth, hinting at larger narrativesbehind fleeting moments of movement and stasis. Meanwhile, Daisy May Sheff constructs her bright, whimsical, sometimes fantasticalcanvases with multiple layers of paint, forging works that ‘offer glimpses into detailed, private narratives’ through a unique visual languagethat blurs the boundary between figuration and abstraction.