Anywhere Out of the World: New Paintings, 2017-2020
Susan Bee
GALLERY I
Demonology, 2018. Oil on linen. 30 x 24 inches.
September 12 — October 11, 2020
A.I.R. Gallery is pleased to present Anywhere Out of the World, an exhibition of new paintings by Susan Bee from 2018 to the present. Bee’s mythological paintings use archetypes as iconic flashpoints for contemporary social and personal struggles. Women appear as monsters and romantic heroines, angels ascend a ladder to a place beyond the picture frame, crowds attend a hallucinogenic rally for voting rights. The fantastical and historical are put in direct dialogue with the visionary art of the romantic sublime.
The paintings in this show—whether art historical or fictive in subject matter—examine the place of the artist in relation to a larger world. Anywhere Out of the World, 2019, re-interprets a 1914 self-portrait by Chagall, which, in turn, was inspired by a line by Baudelaire—N'importe où hors du monde. For Bee, the painting speaks to the artist’s sense of entrapment within the fragmentation and alienation of our current moment, with only a giant paintbrush as a tool of defense. Emerging from a similarly art-historical lineage, Demonology, 2018, is based on a lithograph by James Ensor but could also be read as a self-portrait, reconfigured to include a female figure and to provoke a feminist reading of the image.
Other paintings illustrate the dystopian dreamscapes and heroic journeys of the present. In Under Water, 2019, a shark and sailboat are tossed by a rising seascape while affective abstractions and huddled female figures look on, confronting the ecological disasters that characterize our era. Votes for Women, 2018, painted in honor of the centennial anniversary of women’s suffrage in 1918, both commemorates this momentous movement while also suggesting the long and uncertain road ahead for equal rights for women.
Expressionist and idyllic elements explode, with a riot of pop imagery, linear gestures, and layers of paint. These works are homages, but also confrontations. This syncretic blend of the remembered and remade turns historical monumentality on its head.
Read the full Press Release here.
View Bee's page here.
Recent Press
Yinka Elujoba, “Susan Bee: Anywhere Out of the World: New Paintings, 2017-2020,” The Brooklyn Rail, 2020
Barbara Montefalcone, “N’importe où hors du monde: Susan Bee in Paris,” interview, Miranda 21, 2020.
Post Hoc, An Online Art Show, 2020
Deep Color: Podcast Interview #63: Susan Bee with Joseph Hart
SUSAN BEE with Phong H. Bui | The Brooklyn Rail
Two Coats of Paint : Anywhere Out of the World: Chagall and me
One Question, One Answer, 2020
Instagram Interview with Phong Bui, 2020
Brooklyn Rail Tour of Susan Bee’s Studio, 2020
Son[i]a #308 Susan Bee | RWM Ràdio Web MACBA + Deleted Scenes
Susan Bee: Creativity in Isolation, Beinecke Library, Yale University (July 7, 2020)
Public Programs
In conjunction with the exhibition, A.I.R. Gallery was pleased to host Tangled Tango, which featured Bee in conversation with essayist and novelist Siri Hustvedt.
Installation photos by Sebastian Bach