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Wildlife: Julie Curtiss

Past exhibition
April 25 - June 15, 2019
  • Overview
  • Installation Views
  • Works
  • Press
Overview
Julie Curtiss Dials, 2019 Acrylic, vinyl and oil paint on canvas 30 x 25 inches (76.2 x 63.5 cm)
Julie Curtiss
Dials, 2019
Acrylic, vinyl and oil paint on canvas
30 x 25 inches
(76.2 x 63.5 cm)

Wildlife marks Paris-born, New York-based artist Julie Curtiss’s debut solo exhibition at the gallery. New York City, nature, and tropes of femininity inspire Curtiss’ subversive and wildly imaginative paintings, sculptures, and gouaches. Rockaway Beach, Chinatown, East Village hair salons, and Upper West Side shops are the urban jungle through which Curtiss prowls for quotidian scenes, rendering them surreal as she plays with diametrically opposed forces of attraction and repulsion, humor and darkness, shadow and light.

 

In one painting, a hazy beach scene shows a group of women lounging topless, their tan lines and exposed nipples playfully juxtaposed against the ocean horizon, where pointy sailboats glide across the water. In another, the neon sign of a Chinatown storefront window glows against three sizzling ducks, freshly roasted. The centerpiece of the exhibition is Curtiss’ largest painting to date, looming at over eight feet tall. In it, an elegantly dressed woman with perfectly coiffed hair sits with her back to the viewer. A glamorous chandelier hangs over her head. Her gown is hiked up over her knees; the throne on which she sits is a toilet—a decidedly indiscreet nod to Buñuel’s classic take on the charms of the bourgeoisie, as cockroaches crawl under the floorboards of the gilded bathroom.

 

 The artist’s sharp, incisive painting technique is on full display; each blade of grass, each fiber of a carpet, and every strand in a coil of tresses, is rendered with intricate and rigorous care. Her witty visual puns play with our ideas and expectations about the body, encouraging exploration of the ambiguity of life itself and our relation to each other, to nature, and to our primal instincts. The Chicago Imagists and Surrealists are immediately recognizable influences, but internalized by Curtiss and rendered in a style that is decidedly and uniquely her own.

 

The exhibition coincides with the release of Curtiss’ new artist book, The Dinner Party, published by Spheres Publications, and a limited edition silkscreen print, Escargot.

 

Julie Curtiss (b. 1982, Paris, France, lives and works in Brooklyn, NY) holds an MFA and a BA from Ecole Nationale Superieur des Beaux- Arts, Paris, France. Recent solo exhibitions include Altered States at Various Small Fires, Los Angeles, CA (2018) and Soft Shells at 106 Green, Brooklyn, NY (2017). Other recent group exhibitions include No Patience for Monuments, Perrotin, Seoul, South Korea (2019); Genesis Belanger, Julie Curtiss, Anthony Iacono, Howard’s, Atlanta GA (2019); 10, Anton Kern Gallery, New York, NY (2018); Syphilis, Rental Gallery, East Hampton, NY (2018); and Predatory Behavior, T293, Roma, Italy (2018).

 

 Curtiss is currently a resident in the Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program in Brooklyn, NY. Her work is included in the permanent collections of Bronx Museum of Art, NY; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA; Walker Art Centre, Minneapolis, MN, and Yuz Museum, Shanghai, China.

Download Press Release
List of Works
Installation Views
  • Installation view of Julie Curtiss's solo show at the gallery featuring paintings and sculptures.
  • Installation view of Julie Curtiss's solo show at the gallery featuring paintings and sculptures. Three works.
  • Installation view of Julie Curtiss's solo show at the gallery featuring paintings and sculptures. Two paintings and a sculpture.
  • Installation view of Julie Curtiss's solo show at the gallery featuring paintings and sculptures. Many works featured.
  • Installation view of Julie Curtiss's solo show at the gallery featuring paintings and sculptures. Painting and sculpture featured.
  • Installation view of Julie Curtiss's solo show at the gallery featuring paintings and sculptures. A large one of Curtiss' paintings in the show.
  • Installation view of Julie Curtiss's solo show at the gallery featuring paintings and sculptures. One painting presented.
Works
  • Julie Curtiss Dials, 2019
    Julie Curtiss
    Dials, 2019
  • Julie Curtiss Etalage, 2019
    Julie Curtiss
    Etalage, 2019
  • Julie Curtiss Chinatown, 2018
    Julie Curtiss
    Chinatown, 2018
  • Julie Curtiss Woman in High Heels, 2018
    Julie Curtiss
    Woman in High Heels, 2018
  • Julie Curtiss 3 Fingers, 2019
    Julie Curtiss
    3 Fingers, 2019
  • Julie Curtiss Comb Through, 2019
    Julie Curtiss
    Comb Through, 2019
  • Julie Curtiss Orlando, 2019
    Julie Curtiss
    Orlando, 2019
  • Julie Curtiss L'entre-acte, 2019
    Julie Curtiss
    L'entre-acte, 2019
  • Julie Curtiss Dog Days
    Julie Curtiss
    Dog Days
  • Julie Curtiss Food for Thought, 2018
    Julie Curtiss
    Food for Thought, 2018
  • Julie Curtiss The Bend, 2018
    Julie Curtiss
    The Bend, 2018
  • Julie Curtiss Four Buns, 2019
    Julie Curtiss
    Four Buns, 2019
  • Julie Curtiss Anemones, 2019
    Julie Curtiss
    Anemones, 2019
  • Julie Curtiss The Mirror, 2019
    Julie Curtiss
    The Mirror, 2019
  • Julie Curtiss Cascade, 2019
    Julie Curtiss
    Cascade, 2019
  • Julie Curtiss Plat de Résistance, 2019
    Julie Curtiss
    Plat de Résistance, 2019
  • Julie Curtiss Coeurs d'artichaut, 2019
    Julie Curtiss
    Coeurs d'artichaut, 2019
Press
  • What Does the Art World Look Like Now?

    Dodie Kazanjian, Vogue, April 27, 2020
    This link opens in a new tab.
  • How Artist Julie Curtiss is Making Waves with Her Quirky, Macabre Neo-Surrealism

    Dodie Kazanjian, Vogue, April 16, 2020
    This link opens in a new tab.
  • Julie Curtiss Unleashes "Wildlife" to Anton Kern Gallery

    Juxtapoz, May 21, 2019
  • Editors’ Picks: 19 Things Not to Miss in New York’s Art World This Week

    Sarah Cascone, artnet, April 22, 2019
  • 9 Art Events in New York This Week: ‘Art After Stonewall,’ Lorna Simpson, Frank Stella, and More

    ARTnews, April 22, 2019
  • Julie Curtiss: Where The Wild Things Are

    Evan Pricco, Juxtapoz, April 1, 2019
  • The 6 Rising Artists to Watch in 2019

    Diane Solway, Antwaun Sargent and Janelle Zara, W Magazine, January 29, 2019

Related artist

  • Julie Curtiss

    Julie Curtiss

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ANTON KERN GALLERY

16 East 55th Street

New York, NY 10022

 

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Press Inquiries:
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