Lauren Portada

 

something bright, then holes

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March 30 - May 11, 2024

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reception Saturday March 30 

5-7 PM

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The gallery is thrilled to announce our upcoming exhibition: Lauren Portada, something bright, then holes. This will be Lauren's second solo exhibition with the gallery.

 

In this group of new paintings, darkness settles across Lauren's hushed domestic spaces.  Swaths of twilight cut across low-lit rooms, falling on surfaces strewn with fruit and potted plants. A cat curls in the shadowy corner. There's a sense of sweltering heat in the garden where the picnic is set. A particular baroque mood borrowed from an earlier time in painting.

 

The show's title comes from the poet Maggie Nelson. Perhaps these are vanitas paintings, the ripe pear perfect for a moment. The cut flowers still alive in the vase. 

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What it is—

Some soft
tautology

whose terms
are touch

Time to give, time
to give it up. 

 

- Maggie Nelson, something bright, then holes

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Lauren Portada recently relocated from Brooklyn NY to West Orange NJ. Previous exhibitions include Transmitter Gallery (NY), Trestle (NY), Kristen Lorello Gallery (NY). She has exhibited nationally and internationally in New York, Chicago, L.A., India and Norway. Portada was one of ten founding members of the artist-run collective Regina Rex located in Brooklyn and Manhattan from 2010-2018. She has held residencies in India (Fulbright); Svalbard, Norway; Vidgelmir Cave, Iceland; and Skowhegan. Portada has an MFA from the University of Illinois at Chicago and a BFA from Fordham College. She teaches painting at Trevor Day School and Montclair State University. 

 

image is Maria's Lemon, 2024. 38 x 48 inches. Acrylic on linen with linen cutouts.

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A PDF with large images of paintings and works on paper is available here.