Amy Sillman, Torso with Green (2023). Acrylic, ink, silkscreen on paper. 151.1 x 106 cm. © Amy Sillman. Courtesy the artist, Thomas Dane Gallery, Naples and Gladstone Gallery, New York.
Amy Sillman, Mug (2023). Acrylic, oil on linen. 190.5 x 167.6 cm. © Amy Sillman. Courtesy the artist, Thomas Dane Gallery, Naples and Gladstone Gallery, New York.
Fluid streaks of rich colour congeal together to resemble the figurative in new large-scale oil paintings by Amy Sillman.
On view at Thomas Dane Gallery in Naples, Temporary Object (26 April–29 July 2023) presents the New York artist’s latest paintings and drawings.
Mug (2023), seemingly titled after the slang word for human face, contrasts cartoonish strokes of green and red while curved lines in white and grey resemble the outline of a head. The jumble of colours and geometric shapes that fill Mug‘s ‘face’ suggests the ebb and flow of human emotions, which can sometimes be contradictory, chaotic, and supercharged.
Torso with Green (2023), an acrylic and ink silkscreen on paper is a flurry of layers in cool blues and charcoal greys. The work resembles a stickman drawing, though instead of a vertical line for the body, Sillman maps out a rounder shape permeated with leaf-shaped silhouettes.
The depth of layering accomplished by meaty contours and smeared strokes encapsulates Sillman’s aptitude for perfectly merging figuration with abstraction. Her visceral handling of shape and form, and her sagacious use of colour imbue her paintings with an intense energy borrowed from real life.
Main image: Amy Sillman, Torso with Green (2023) (detail). Acrylic, ink, silkscreen on paper. 151.1 x 106 cm. © Amy Sillman. Courtesy the artist, Thomas Dane Gallery, Naples and Gladstone Gallery, New York.
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