131SHOW PREVIEWsubject matter whether to talk about my
identity, my experiences, the subcultures
I relate to, radical vulnerability, the #MeToo
movement or some other narrative, makes
the most sense to me because it is my
viewpoint and it is what I know. How else
am I supposed to reclaim the gaze on my
own body than to show you that this is my
gaze? I don’t agonize over how to portray
myself. I am myself. Here I am,” she says,
adding that her tattoos are an extension of
her body. “They are my skin, which when
I paint self-portraits becomes an extension
of the painting, sure. My collection of tattoos
represents a tally of events, symbols, memo-
ries and time frames in my life. It’s also a
way that I’ve been able to collect art from
tattoo artists that I admire, most of whom
I am lucky to call my friends.”
Chelsea Gibson will also be showing new
work from a female perspective. “My recent
work depicts women in upstate New York
that live in the same part of the world that
I do, and whom I admire and look to for guid-
ance or inspiration,” Gibson says. “We get
together and talk about life, family, relation-
ships and they agree to let me take photo-
graphs while we talk. This keeps the images
relatively casual and helps capture the spirit
of the conversation and where we both are in
our minds as we spend time together. They
become capsules of memory for me of the
conversations we had and where we were in
our lives at that specific point in time.”
In one of her works, Kaima’s Living Room,
she paints a yoga teacher in a magnificent
room with wood floors, a colorful rug and
a wood-burning stove. “She agreed to have
me come to her house and photograph her
while we sat and drank lavender tea and
talked,” Gibson says. “As with all of my
paintings, I know exactly what we spoke
about during that meeting and remember
the feeling of being together that day. That
said, what exactly we spoke about doesn’t
matter to the work as much as the feeling
of closeness and really seeing one another,which I am lucky to say happens with all of
the women I am painting at the moment.”
Other works in the show include
Greene’s quiltlike patchwork of color Chloe
and Tommy; Lovell’s work with areas of
thick impasto paint, Jemel Campbell (in the
neighborhood); and Kennedy’s bird paint-
ings that extend past the panel and onto
the frame. One piece tells a story in just the
title: “Ernie naively hoped that if he could
throw himself into this dynamic pose the
colonisers would be forced to acknowledge
his uniquely radiant splendor and might
refrain from their invariable decimation.”
The show continues through August 17.Lyons Wier Gallery
542 W. 24th Street • New York, NY 10011 •
(212) 242-6220 • http://www.lyonswiergallery.com4
Sullivan Giles, Trust/Truth,
(Self-Portrait at 32), oil on
canvas, 40 x 30"
5
Chelsea Gibson,
Kaima’s Living Room,
oil on panel, 50 x 40"45