OPENING RECEPTION ON FRIDAY, JUNE 28, 6 - 8 PM
McLennon Pen Co. Gallery proudly presents an exhibition of new paintings by Brooklyn-based artist Charlotte Fox.
Working predominantly with oil, Fox’s work playfully explores experiences of repulsion and desire through the lens of fantasy and fragmented or fictionalized self-narrative. Her process uses several visual references such as personal photography, vintage porn and old films and cartoons, which are later digitally collaged together before being painted on canvas.
For this new series, Fox was inspired by the warmth and intimacy of the three adjoining rooms of the McLennon Pen Co. space. Comprised of nine paintings, Fox envisioned the show as a voyeuristic moment for the viewer, walking through doorways and stealing quick glimpses of something personal and private as they move through the three gallery rooms. Playing with scale and delving into types of intimacy, real or imagined, she thinks of these paintings as still lifes of moments that have been frozen.
Fox cites an interest in making paintings that are dissected—smaller, stripped-down fragments of a greater image or narrative, like different acts of a play. She describes these works as “hiding something from the viewer; traces of body parts, masks, statues, and blurred faces. The body is a cadaver, dissected among each painting.”
The unconventional hues of chartreuse greens and neon yellows in Fox’s latest series quickly evoke an unsettling feeling. The color palette is reminiscent of cartoon depictions of poisonous liquids, fumes, or the smell of something sour wafting through the air. Titles of the paintings, such as Piss Yellow / Shut the Drapes, and Bed Wetter, concoct a visceral feeling of wetness, while the imagery introduces sexualized themes and suggests tension, perversion, and discomfort.
In My Chamber / Masks depicts a purple tree trunk grasped by a woman’s naked purple legs with two superimposed sinister green faces that smirk evilly. They look directly out at the viewer, possibly mocking and subverting the male gaze from the female nude. The sense of intrusion is heightened as the tree and female body appear to be seen through a night vision lens.
Naked, exposed, body parts of faceless women, statues of birds and references to eggs, are recurring motifs in Fox’s paintings, hinting at a precarious delicacy. Porcelain figurines add a tinge of antique frilliness, but may suggest fragility and the possibility of shattering. This is particularly evident in the painting Beloved / Never Have I Ever, where a stone statue of a cherub is frozen in time, with its hands choking a goose that looks about to burst.
The titles of the paintings Limerence and Burying Something signal a state of quiet longing and flirting with fear. The depictions in this series of paintings are not centered on love or purely lust; there is another layer of obsessiveness and intrusiveness countered by repugnance and vulnerability that is more disturbing. Something is starting to go sour.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Charlotte Fox (b. 1994, New York City) received her BFA in 2016 from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago with a focus in painting. She has exhibited nationally and internationally in recent years at As It Stands, Los Angeles; Moosey Art Hoxton, London; H.G. Chicago, Chicago; 303 Gallery, New York; Reena Spaulings Fine Art Gallery, New York; Onground Gallery, Seoul; and Hoxton Arches, London; and online with kennyschachter.art. In the fall of 2024, Fox will show work in the project room at 303 Gallery in New York. She currently lives and works in New York.