MAX RES DEFAULT
CAITLIN CHERRY
LUCE GALLERY
Turin, from June 8 to July 8, 2022
Opening: Wednesday, June 8, 6:30 pm
Online video featuring exhibition walkthrough
Exhibition view, Max Res Default, Caitlin Cherry, 2022, Photo PEPE fotografia, Courtesy the artist and Luce Gallery, Turin
Luce Gallery is pleased to announce the solo show “Max Res Default” by Caitlin Cherry, in Turin from June 8 to July 8, 2022.
The African-American artist continues to explore the Black femininity in the contemporary image culture and our society’s consumer-like relationship with it, depicting iridescent collaged screenshots of Black femme entertainers and influencers mined from social media, music videos, live music performances, pornography, and fashion on the web. Her palette - bold, bright, and prismatic - distorts each image’s original color, using a moiré-like technique to sometimes mimic the color swirling patterns visible when touching an LCD screen.
The exhibition brings together thirteen medium- and large-scale paintings conceived in 2022, investigating the many aspects of Black femininity as seen through “The Yee-Haw Agenda”, contemporary pornography, and drag culture, while also encouraging deeper conversations about gender, commodification, and forgotten histories.
The title Max Res Default references the technical term for how we prefer to view images online, with maximum resolution as the default setting. In each painting, Cherry seemingly turns up the volume to “max” on everything from saturated color to a multitude of imagery, to brazen sexuality. The result elevates an underrepresented Black femme aesthetic to fine art.
Video Killed the Painting Star features scenes of six distinct performances by famous Black female performers. The largest figure on the right is of porn actress Ana Foxxx, overlapped by a scene of the actress Thandiwe Newton in the acclaimed HBO sci-fi western TV series “Westworld”. On the left are a few close-ups of the rapper Cardi B in two separate performances, including the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo 2019, wearing a cowboy hat, along with a background dancer. Ana Foxxx is depicted as statuesque, tall and idealized with her nude skin resembling the sheen of a highly polished bronze statue. This, combined with her size in the composition, emphasizes the artist’s interest to remove judgment of Foxxx’s profession, and, instead elevate sex workers to celebrity status. This painting also heavily references “The Yee-Haw Agenda”, which celebrates the Black cowboy aesthetics. The history of the Black cowboy has been largely erased from American culture, while in fact, one in four was African American. The cultural movement’s name, coined by Bri Malandro in 2018, recalls “The Gay Agenda” and growing concern from conservative Americans about the perceived rise in power of the LGBTQIA+ community within politics and popular culture. The Instagram account of the Texan archivist observes the trend of western wear in the Black pop culture, incorporated especially into music videos and live performances by stars, such as Beyoncé, Cardi B, Doja Cat, Lil Nas X, and Solange. They challenge common misconceptions about the territory of Blackness in the United States, which has become synonymous with the word “urban”. Underneath catchy branding and bejeweled Cowboy hats of celebrities lies the forgotten history of the Cowboy and the origin of Country Western music that is intertwined with the history of Black America. While cowboy culture is typically associated with rugged white males (think the Marlboro Man) and the white cowboy has become a symbol of rugged capitalist individualism and a fixture of Americana, however, the first cowboys in the United States were of Mexican and Black descent.
Skete Davidson portrays a close-up of the transgender actress Indya Moore with their chin slightly resting in their open hands and a dark red and black halo surrounding their head. Their full lips are pursed as they stare directly at the viewer through flirtatious lashes. This screenshot is based on the promotional poster for the series “Pose” on Netflix, where Moore plays the role of Angel. By including a transgender, non-binary person, Cherry intentionally attempts an inclusive and expansive idea of Black femininity, acknowledging that it has never aligned neatly into a sole gender category.
Cherry's paintings promote porous and fluctuating notions of gender, sexuality, and racial performativity. The practice considers the digital interfaces from which she extracts the images as a co-producer of reality. Her kaleidoscopic works read like a glitched and chaotic LCD laptop’s desktop screen, with overlapping tabs and windows-within windows with browser tabs of porn, open simultaneously with a YouTube music video. The idea of the iconic subject is deterritorialized. This work captures the destabilized nature of Black femininity, particularly as it is surveilled and performed online.
Caitlin Cherry, Pusse Mignon (Duncan Saint), 2022, oil on canvas, 145.8 x 144.7 cm (57.4 x 57 in), Photo PEPE Fotografia, Courtesy the artist and Luce Gallery, Turin
Caitlin Cherry, Bicoastal Bisexual™, 2022, oil on canvas, 147.5 x 147 cm (58.1 x 57.9 in), Photo PEPE Fotografia, Courtesy the artist and Luce Gallery, Turin
The never-before-seen paintings by Caitlin Cherry on view portray the rapper and singer Doja Cat and singing group Destiny's Child in “Bicoastal Bisexual™”; porn actress Ana Foxxx, rapper and actress Cardi B in two performances including the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo 2019, background dancer, actress Thandiwe Newton in the HBO TV series “Westworld” in “Video Killed the Painting Star”; rapper and actress Cardi B, rapper Megan Thee Stallion on a horse, an anonymous porn actress, and actress Stacey Dash in the movie “Gang of Roses” in “Pusse Mignon (Duncan Saint)”; an anonymous porn model and actress in “Big Spender”; rapper Megan Thee Stallion visiting the Red Bull Racing paddock before a Formula 1 Race in “Czarists and Androids”; an anonymous porn actress in a glory hole scene in “Suck It Or Go”; an anonymous porn actress dressed in “Avatar” movie cosplay costume in “Hustlers”; drag queen Latrice Royale in “White Refridgerator Hunny”; house mother and trans star Elektra Abundance from the series “Pose” on Netflix in “Touching Private Parts on Private Planes”; an anonymous porn actress dressed in “Avatar” movie cosplay costume in “Proton-Enhanced Nuclear Induction Spectroscopy”; rapper and singer Doja Cat performing at Lollapalooza Chile in 2022, behind a pixelated jumbotron display in “Jumbotron”; actress Halle Berry as Storm in the “X-Men” franchise in “The Problematic Ball”; transgender non-binary actor Indya Moore in the role of Angel in the series “Pose” on Netflix, promotional poster in “Skete Davidson”.
The exhibition walkthrough video is online at: www.lucegallery.com/video.php.
Exhibition view, Max Res Default, Caitlin Cherry, 2022, Photo PEPE fotografia, Courtesy the artist and Luce Gallery, Turin
Caitlin Cherry, Touching Private Parts on Private Planes, 2022, oil on canvas, 91.4 x 61 cm (36 x 24 in), Photo PEPE Fotografia, Courtesy the artist and Luce Gallery, Turin
Caitlin Cherry, Czarists and Androids, 2022, oil on canvas, 91.4 x 61 cm (36 x 24 in), Photo PEPE Fotografia, Courtesy the artist and Luce Gallery, Turin
Caitlin Cherry (1987, Chicago, Illinois, United States) lives and works in Richmond, Virginia. She is an African-American artist with a multifaceted practice that includes painting, sculpture, and installation. Cherry earned a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an MFA from Columbia University School of the Arts, where she studied under Kara Walker. Currently, she is an Assistant Professor of Painting and Printmaking at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. Cherry participated in solo shows at Providence College Galleries in Providence (2018), The Anderson - Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond (2018), University Museum of Contemporary Art - UMass Amherst in Amherst (2017), Brooklyn Museum in New York (2013), and in group shows at the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Virginia Beach (2021), Bronx Museum of the Arts in New York (2021), San Diego Art Institute in San Diego (2020), Hallie Ford Museum of Art in Salem (2018), Performance Space in New York (2018), Utah Museum of Contemporary Art in Salt Lake City (2016), Studio Museum of Harlem in New York (2012). Among her recent high-profile group shows in the United States: Jeffrey Deitch in Los Angeles (2022, 2019, 2018), Perrotin in New York (2022), and Pace in New York (2021). In 2022, her upcoming exhibitions include group shows at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts in Omaha, the Museum of Sex in New York, and the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA) in Cape Town. In 2023, her works will be presented in a solo show at the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts in San Francisco and in the group shows at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth and the Baltimore Museum of Art. She was a recipient of the Colene Brown Art Prize 2020, Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Fellowship Residency 2016, and Leonore Annenberg Fellowship 2015. Additionally, her work has been acquired by numerous private collections and public institutions.
Some works of the exhibition include adult content. Viewer discretion is advised.
Max Res Default
Caitlin Cherry
Luce Gallery
Turin, from June 8 to July 8, 2022
Opening: Wednesday, June 8, 6:30 pm
Largo Montebello 40, Italy
Hours: Tuesday to Friday, 3:30 - 7:30 pm
+39 011 18890206
info@lucegallery.com
Instagram: lucegallery
Online videos featuring exhibition walkthroughs: www.lucegallery.com/video.php
Press Office: THE KNACK STUDIO / Tamara Lorenzi
tamara@theknackstudio.com / +39 347 0712934
info@theknackstudio.com / www.theknackstudio.com
MAX RES DEFAULT
CAITLIN CHERRY
LUCE GALLERY
Turin, from June 8 to July 8, 2022
Opening: Wednesday, June 8, 6:30 pm
Online video featuring exhibition walkthrough
Exhibition view, Max Res Default, Caitlin Cherry, 2022, Photo PEPE fotografia, Courtesy the artist and Luce Gallery, Turin
Caitlin Cherry, Pusse Mignon (Duncan Saint), 2022, oil on canvas, 145.8 x 144.7 cm (57.4 x 57 in), Photo PEPE Fotografia, Courtesy the artist and Luce Gallery, Turin
Caitlin Cherry, Bicoastal Bisexual™, 2022, oil on canvas, 147.5 x 147 cm (58.1 x 57.9 in), Photo PEPE Fotografia, Courtesy the artist and Luce Gallery, Turin
Luce Gallery is pleased to announce the solo show “Max Res Default” by Caitlin Cherry, in Turin from June 8 to July 8, 2022.
The African-American artist continues to explore the Black femininity in the contemporary image culture and our society’s consumer-like relationship with it, depicting iridescent collaged screenshots of Black femme entertainers and influencers mined from social media, music videos, live music performances, pornography, and fashion on the web. Her palette - bold, bright, and prismatic - distorts each image’s original color, using a moiré-like technique to sometimes mimic the color swirling patterns visible when touching an LCD screen.
The exhibition brings together thirteen medium- and large-scale paintings conceived in 2022, investigating the many aspects of Black femininity as seen through “The Yee-Haw Agenda”, contemporary pornography, and drag culture, while also encouraging deeper conversations about gender, commodification, and forgotten histories.
The title Max Res Default references the technical term for how we prefer to view images online, with maximum resolution as the default setting. In each painting, Cherry seemingly turns up the volume to “max” on everything from saturated color to a multitude of imagery, to brazen sexuality. The result elevates an underrepresented Black femme aesthetic to fine art.
Video Killed the Painting Star features scenes of six distinct performances by famous Black female performers. The largest figure on the right is of porn actress Ana Foxxx, overlapped by a scene of the actress Thandiwe Newton in the acclaimed HBO sci-fi western TV series “Westworld”. On the left are a few close-ups of the rapper Cardi B in two separate performances, including the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo 2019, wearing a cowboy hat, along with a background dancer. Ana Foxxx is depicted as statuesque, tall and idealized with her nude skin resembling the sheen of a highly polished bronze statue. This, combined with her size in the composition, emphasizes the artist’s interest to remove judgment of Foxxx’s profession, and, instead elevate sex workers to celebrity status. This painting also heavily references “The Yee-Haw Agenda”, which celebrates the Black cowboy aesthetics. The history of the Black cowboy has been largely erased from American culture, while in fact, one in four was African American. The cultural movement’s name, coined by Bri Malandro in 2018, recalls “The Gay Agenda” and growing concern from conservative Americans about the perceived rise in power of the LGBTQIA+ community within politics and popular culture. The Instagram account of the Texan archivist observes the trend of western wear in the Black pop culture, incorporated especially into music videos and live performances by stars, such as Beyoncé, Cardi B, Doja Cat, Lil Nas X, and Solange. They challenge common misconceptions about the territory of Blackness in the United States, which has become synonymous with the word “urban”. Underneath catchy branding and bejeweled Cowboy hats of celebrities lies the forgotten history of the Cowboy and the origin of Country Western music that is intertwined with the history of Black America. While cowboy culture is typically associated with rugged white males (think the Marlboro Man) and the white cowboy has become a symbol of rugged capitalist individualism and a fixture of Americana, however, the first cowboys in the United States were of Mexican and Black descent.
Skete Davidson portrays a close-up of the transgender actress Indya Moore with their chin slightly resting in their open hands and a dark red and black halo surrounding their head. Their full lips are pursed as they stare directly at the viewer through flirtatious lashes. This screenshot is based on the promotional poster for the series “Pose” on Netflix, where Moore plays the role of Angel. By including a transgender, non-binary person, Cherry intentionally attempts an inclusive and expansive idea of Black femininity, acknowledging that it has never aligned neatly into a sole gender category.
Cherry's paintings promote porous and fluctuating notions of gender, sexuality, and racial performativity. The practice considers the digital interfaces from which she extracts the images as a co-producer of reality. Her kaleidoscopic works read like a glitched and chaotic LCD laptop’s desktop screen, with overlapping tabs and windows-within windows with browser tabs of porn, open simultaneously with a YouTube music video. The idea of the iconic subject is deterritorialized. This work captures the destabilized nature of Black femininity, particularly as it is surveilled and performed online.
The never-before-seen paintings by Caitlin Cherry on view portray the rapper and singer Doja Cat and singing group Destiny's Child in “Bicoastal Bisexual™”; porn actress Ana Foxxx, rapper and actress Cardi B in two performances including the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo 2019, background dancer, actress Thandiwe Newton in the HBO TV series “Westworld” in “Video Killed the Painting Star”; rapper and actress Cardi B, rapper Megan Thee Stallion on a horse, an anonymous porn actress, and actress Stacey Dash in the movie “Gang of Roses” in “Pusse Mignon (Duncan Saint)”; an anonymous porn model and actress in “Big Spender”; rapper Megan Thee Stallion visiting the Red Bull Racing paddock before a Formula 1 Race in “Czarists and Androids”; an anonymous porn actress in a glory hole scene in “Suck It Or Go”; an anonymous porn actress dressed in “Avatar” movie cosplay costume in “Hustlers”; drag queen Latrice Royale in “White Refridgerator Hunny”; house mother and trans star Elektra Abundance from the series “Pose” on Netflix in “Touching Private Parts on Private Planes”; an anonymous porn actress dressed in “Avatar” movie cosplay costume in “Proton-Enhanced Nuclear Induction Spectroscopy”; rapper and singer Doja Cat performing at Lollapalooza Chile in 2022, behind a pixelated jumbotron display in “Jumbotron”; actress Halle Berry as Storm in the “X-Men” franchise in “The Problematic Ball”; transgender non-binary actor Indya Moore in the role of Angel in the series “Pose” on Netflix, promotional poster in “Skete Davidson”.
The exhibition walkthrough video is online at: www.lucegallery.com/video.php.
Exhibition view, Max Res Default, Caitlin Cherry, 2022, Photo PEPE fotografia, Courtesy the artist and Luce Gallery, Turin
Caitlin Cherry, Touching Private Parts on Private Planes, 2022, oil on canvas, 91.4 x 61 cm (36 x 24 in), Photo PEPE Fotografia, Courtesy the artist and Luce Gallery, Turin
Caitlin Cherry, Czarists and Androids, 2022, oil on canvas, 91.4 x 61 cm (36 x 24 in), Photo PEPE Fotografia, Courtesy the artist and Luce Gallery, Turin
Caitlin Cherry (1987, Chicago, Illinois, United States) lives and works in Richmond, Virginia. She is an African-American artist with a multifaceted practice that includes painting, sculpture, and installation. Cherry earned a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an MFA from Columbia University School of the Arts, where she studied under Kara Walker. Currently, she is an Assistant Professor of Painting and Printmaking at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. Cherry participated in solo shows at Providence College Galleries in Providence (2018), The Anderson - Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond (2018), University Museum of Contemporary Art - UMass Amherst in Amherst (2017), Brooklyn Museum in New York (2013), and in group shows at the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Virginia Beach (2021), Bronx Museum of the Arts in New York (2021), San Diego Art Institute in San Diego (2020), Hallie Ford Museum of Art in Salem (2018), Performance Space in New York (2018), Utah Museum of Contemporary Art in Salt Lake City (2016), Studio Museum of Harlem in New York (2012). Among her recent high-profile group shows in the United States: Jeffrey Deitch in Los Angeles (2022, 2019, 2018), Perrotin in New York (2022), and Pace in New York (2021). In 2022, her upcoming exhibitions include group shows at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts in Omaha, the Museum of Sex in New York, and the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA) in Cape Town. In 2023, her works will be presented in a solo show at the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts in San Francisco and in the group shows at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth and the Baltimore Museum of Art. She was a recipient of the Colene Brown Art Prize 2020, Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Fellowship Residency 2016, and Leonore Annenberg Fellowship 2015. Additionally, her work has been acquired by numerous private collections and public institutions.
Some works of the exhibition include adult content. Viewer discretion is advised.
Max Res Default
Caitlin Cherry
Luce Gallery
Turin, from June 8 to July 8, 2022
Opening: Wednesday, June 8, 6:30 pm
Largo Montebello 40, Italy
Hours: Tuesday to Friday, 3:30 - 7:30 pm
+39 011 18890206
info@lucegallery.com
Instagram: lucegallery
Online videos featuring exhibition walkthroughs: www.lucegallery.com/video.php
Press Office: THE KNACK STUDIO / Tamara Lorenzi
tamara@theknackstudio.com / +39 347 0712934
info@theknackstudio.com / www.theknackstudio.com
