“Nana and other stories” Installation view. Photo: Jeon Byung-cheol. ©Gladstone Gallery SeoulGaldstone Gallery Seoul presents “Nana and other stories” by Cecily Brown, her first solo exhibition in Korea, through June 8.
This exhibition features Brown’s new paintings. Expanding upon her established practice, Brown’s paintings turn inward revisiting works from the artist’s oeuvre some of which were recently shown in her seminal survey, “Death and the Maid,” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2023. Preparing this exhibition invoked a new interest in Brown to continue examining previous series and familiar subjects, asserting the artist’s radical ability to reimagine narratives and amplifying her innovative reinterpretation of historical motifs.
Layered and narratively complex, Brown’s paintings defy categorization, drawing upon a multitude of genres and seamlessly balancing provocative female figuration with a distinctive gestural style of abstraction. Singular female nudes are a marked departure from the artist’s usual subjects, yet Brown’s commitment to rewriting the artistic traditions of the nude enlivens the sensualized subject with a newfound agency.
Furthermore, Brown’s new works negotiate morality with mortality. “Nana and other stories” reprises the theme of the still life, reflecting upon Brown’s fascination with the uncanny and recalling her previous heavily abundant iterations that draw on Dutch and Flemish traditions in the genre.
