press release - Marie

Natalie Frank | Rachel Mason
Face to Face
Inauguration: Monday 11 April, 2016 | 6.30pm
Galleria Marie-Laure Fleisch | Via di Pallacorda 15 | Rome
from 11 April to 25 June, 2016
Galleria Marie-Laure Fleisch presents Face to Face, the first solo exhibition in Italy by Natalie Frank, with the
participation of the multifaceted artist Rachel Mason.
Natalie Frank's paintings and drawings are stages on which her visionary personages act out their most hidden human
fantasies. Her prevalently female and grotesque characters are what she defines as “portraits of what makes us
human”. The artist presents her new and terrifying subconscious through a language close to that of dreams;
independent and created by the mind according to an unrepeatable sequence of conditions that knows no ethic. Her
masterful pictorial technique maximises the tension between the superficial and the profound, between the figurative
and the abstract, thus sublimating the powerful relationship between the artist and the characters that she portrays
through an amalgam of longing, repulsion, and fascination.
A group of female portraits are exhibited; contemporaneously disquieting and superterrestrial as their gazes go beyond
the confines of the work. Indeed, their magnetic, hyperrealistic eyes are the focal point of the works by revealing
unsettling elements: mismatched green and blue irises, an cataract-ridden eye, or a bluish bruise-like contusion.
Exhibited together with these oil-based works are some pastels from the series “Superheroes”; bizarre carnival scenes
portraying sinister power struggles, and also another two female portraits on a highly-textured cellulose pulp support.
The same cruel, clownish world animates Rachel Mason's video of psychedelic folk music in which the artist, performer,
singer, sculptress and video maker narrates surreal stories of romance and curiosities. Elaborating on current and
historical events, Mason transforms these into intimate and subjective stories through her clown-like visual language
with its powerful Gothic vein.
On show, Marry Me Mary, a melancholic ballad dealing with the anxiety of relationships in which we see the artist's
head rotate as if suspended in an undefined and nightmare-filled atmosphere; and Sunken Chest, a video work filmed
in stop-motion which tells the story of a patient of a psychiatric clinic with a severe chest deformity who spends years
sculpting a wooded branch to depict his own body. When the sculpture is completed, a nurse discovers that the artistpatient has hanged himself from the very same tree from which he took the branch to sculpt.
Face to Face is an exhibition-confrontation between the persona and the subconscious, between the evil of the world
and the malaise derived from repressed desires. The protagonists freely manifest their turmoil and anguish when living
their dream-like existences created by their own nightmares. They enter into and exit reality, demonstrating the
indivisible bond between the Ego and the Id.
Natalie Frank (1980, Austin, TX) lives and works in New York. M.F.A., Visual Arts, Columbia University, School of the Arts, New York, NY; National Academy
of Fine Art, Oslo, Norway; Fulbright Scholarship Study, B.A., Studio Art, Yale University, New Haven, CT. Her exhibitions include: 2016, Natalie Frank: The
Brothers Grimm, University of Kentucky Art Museum, Lexington, KY; Intermission. ACME, Los Angeles; ADAA, Solo-Presentation, Drawings, Rhona Hoffman
Gallery, New York; Contemporary Artists Working in Paper at Dieu Donné, 2000-Present, Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art, Hamilton College, Clinton,
NY; I am a Lie and I am Gold, curated by Marco Breuer, Yossi Milo Gallery, New York; 2015. Natalie Frank: The Brothers Grimm, Blanton Museum at University
of Texas, Austin; Natalie Frank: The Brothers Grimm, The Drawing Center, New York; The Artists Project, Season 1, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New
York, NY 100 short films made by 100 contemporary artists worldwide.
Rachel Mason (1978, Los Angeles) lives and works in Los Angeles. M.F.A. Sculpture, Yale University; B.A. University of California, Los Angeles; Her
exhibitions include: 2016 (upcoming) Personal Exhibition, Los Angeles Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; Cats-in-Residence, curated by Rhonda Lieberman,
Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA; 2015, A Very Anxious Feeling, curated by Melva Bucksbaum and Ray Learsey, Mattatuck Museum Waterbury, CT;
In Your Room, curated by Rachel Rampleman, Vanessa Albury, 184 Project Space, Brooklyn, NY; 2014, Listening Figures, Kim and Art in General, curated
by Kristen Chappa, Riga, Latvia; 2012, 9th Shanghai Biennial, CKTV curated by Cleopatra's, Representing Brooklyn, Shanghai, China; Queens International
Biennial “Three Points Make a Triangle”, Queens Museum of Art Biennial; Fuel For the Fire, organised by Dawn Kasper, David Zwirner and Jay Sanders at
Temporary Space, NY; 2011, Personal Histories, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Detroit, MI.
Galleria Marie-Laure Fleisch | Via di Pallacorda, 15 | 00186 Roma | t. +39 06 688 91936 | [email protected] | www.galleriamlf.com
lunedì-venerdì 14.00-20.00 | sabato 16.00 – 20.00 | mattina e domenica su appuntamento | Press Office: [email protected]
Natalie Frank | Rachel Mason
Face to Face
Inaugurazione: Lunedì 11 aprile, 2016 | ore 18:30
Galleria Marie-Laure Fleisch | Via di Pallacorda 15 | Roma
dall’11 aprile al 25 giugno, 2016
La Galleria Marie-Laure Fleisch presenta Face to Face, la prima mostra personale in Italia di Natalie Frank con la
partecipazione della poliedrica artista Rachel Mason.
I dipinti e i disegni di Natalie Frank sono palcoscenici sui quali si esibiscono personaggi visionari che mettono in
scena le fantasie umane più recondite. Dai caratteri quasi sempre femminili, le sue figure grottesche sono da lei
stessa definite come “ritratti di ciò che ci rende umani”. L’artista presenta un subconscio nuovo e terrificante, un
linguaggio vicino a quello dei sogni, indipendente, creato dalla mente secondo un’irripetibile sequenza di condizioni,
che non conosce morale. La tecnica pittorica magistrale sfrutta la tensione tra piattezza e profondità, tra figurativismo
e astrazione, sublimando il profondo rapporto tra l’artista e i corpi che ritrae: un misto di brama, repulsione e
fascinazione.
In mostra un gruppo di ritratti a olio di volti femminili, inquietanti e ultraterreni, il cui sguardo si spinge oltre i confini
del quadro. Proprio gli occhi sono il punto focale di queste opere, magnetici e iperrealisti, rivelano sempre un
elemento straniante come un iride azzurro e uno verde, un occhio affetto da cataratta, o circondato da un alone blu
simile a una contusione.
Insieme agli oli su tavola sono esposti alcuni disegni a pastello della serie “Superheroes” , bizzarre scene
carnevalesche che sottendono rappresentazioni di biechi giochi di potere, e due dipinti su polpa di cellulosa, molto
materici, ancora ritratti di volti femminili.
Lo stesso mondo crudele e buffonesco anima i lavori di Rachel Mason, video di musica folk psichedelica che l’artista,
performer, cantante, scultrice e videomaker, usa per narrare surreali storie romantiche e curiosi avvenimenti.
Elaborando fatti storici e attualità, la Mason li trasforma in racconti intimi e soggettivi utilizzando un linguaggio visivo
clownesco, con una forte vena gotica.
In mostra Marry Me Mary, una malinconica ballata sull’ansia da relazione, in cui si vede la testa della Mason roteare
sospesa in uno spazio indefinito, in un’atmosfera da incubo; e Sunken Chest, girato in stop-motion, che parla di un
paziente di una clinica psichiatrica affetto da una grave deformazione al torace che trascorre anni a scolpire un ramo
per riprodurre il proprio corpo. Finalmente terminata la scultura, le infermiere della clinica ritrovano l’uomo impiccato
allo stesso albero da cui aveva preso il ramo da intagliare.
Face to Face è una mostra-confronto tra l’umano e il subconscio, tra quello che è il male del mondo e il malessere
personale derivante dalle pulsioni represse. I protagonisti esibiscono liberamente tutti i segni dei turbamenti e delle
angosce, vivono le ambientazioni dei sogni così come dei propri incubi, entrando e uscendo dalla realtà, e dimostrando
l’inscindibile legame tra l’Es e l’Io.
Natalie Frank (1980, Austin, TX) vive e lavora a New York. M.F.A.,Visual Arts, Columbia University, School of the Arts, New York, NY; National Academy of
Fine Art, Oslo, Norway; Fulbright Scholarship Study, B.A., Studio Art, Yale University, New Haven, CT.
Tra le mostre: 2016, Natalie Frank: The Brothers Grimm, University of Kentucky Art Museum, Lexington, KY; Intermission. ACME, Los Angeles; ADAA,
Solo-Presentation, Drawings, Rhona Hoffman Gallery, New York; Contemporary Artists Working in Paper at Dieu Donné, 2000-Present, Ruth and Elmer
Wellin Museum of Art, Hamilton College, Clinton, NY; I am a Lie and I am Gold, curata da Marco Breuer, Yossi Milo Gallery, New York; 2015. Natalie Frank:
The Brothers Grimm, Blanton Museum at University of Texas, Austin; Natalie Frank: The Brothers Grimm, The Drawing Center, New York; The Artists
Project, Season 1, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY 100 short films made of 100 contemporary artists worldwide.
Rachel Mason (1978, Los Angeles) vive e lavora a Los Angeles. M.F.A. Sculpture, Yale University; B.A. University of California, Los Angeles; Tra le mostre:
2016 (prossimamente) Mostra personale, Los Angeles Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; Cats-in-Residence, curated by Rhonda Lieberman, Worcester Art
Museum, Worcester, MA; 2015, A Very Anxious Feeling, curated by Melva Bucksbaum and Ray Learsey, Mattatuck Museum Waterbury, CT; In Your Room,
curated by Rachel Rampleman and Vanessa Albury, 184 Project Space, Brooklyn, NY; 2014, Listening Figures, Kim and Art in General, a cura di Kristen
Chappa, Riga, Latvia; 2012, 9th Shanghai Biennial, CKTV a cura di Cleopatra's, Representing Brooklyn, Shanghai, China; Queens International Biennial
"Three Points Make a Triangle" Queens Museum of Art Biennial; Fuel For the Fire, organizzata da Dawn Kasper, David Zwirner e Jay Sanders at Temporary
Space, NY; 2011, Personal Histories, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Detroit, MI.
Galleria Marie-Laure Fleisch | Via di Pallacorda, 15 | 00186 Roma | t. +39 06 688 91936 | [email protected] | www.galleriamlf.com
lunedì-venerdì 14.00-20.00 | sabato 16.00 – 20.00 | mattina e domenica su appuntamento | Press Office: [email protected]