Come explore a new collection of paintings and sculptures as AFA Gallery proudly presents Cirque Noir, a 3-woman exhibition featuring an imaginative scope of works by Kelly Denato, Kathie Olivas, and Stickymonger.
Where real and surreal dance alongside the many contrasts that dominate our daily lives, each artist pushes deep into water of these experiences and conveys a spectrum of unique interpretations. Through a diverse blend of media and symbolism, the result of this new collection is truly inspiring.
Cirque Noir: Kelly Denato, Kathie Olivas & Stickymonger
Opening Reception:
Saturday, October 7, 2017 | 6-8 pm
Exhibition Dates:
October 7-28, 2017
AFA Gallery
54 Greene Street | New York, NY 10013 | ph. 212.226.7374
For additional images and information, please contact michael@afanyc.com
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Responding to the anxiety provoked by the manner in which each of us is observed, Stickymonger’s work is representative of the gaze. Utilizing eyes throughout her work and as primary subject matter, She embraces that which both fascinates and frightens her. By incorporating these eyes into her work the Artist strips them of their power, while simultaneously encouraging them to look back at the viewer that views them creating a participatory experience.
Kathie Olivas’s work is a study of the human preoccupation with aesthetic beauty and its ability to provide comfort where typically there is none. By assigning “cuteness” to her sculptures and paintings, Olivas distracts the viewer from their involuntary response of revulsion and compels them to spend more time confronting those things that make them shudder. Olivas deftly fuses the weird with the adorable, the creepy with the alluring, through her use of delicately applied oil paints and of found objects. The finesse of the objects themselves allows them to serve as vehicles for Olivas’s messaging: suspect those things that are most familiar rather than those that are not.
Kelly Denato’s body of work is perched at the boundary where optimism and happiness meet tragedy and darkness. Human experience has shown that happiness and sadness are inextricable from one another, that one may not exist without its counter. Denato’s work encapsulates the moments in which one extreme may turn into the other. Delicately rendered sylphs float within their own consciousnesses, entangled and entranced by their dreams, oblivious to the menace of the darkness around them. The paintings belie their complexity through Denato’s masterful application of glaze-like paints and candy-colored environments.
Opening Night
Kathie Olivas
Girl with Cat
Two Faced Girl Series: Ivy May
Mermaid
Seated Esther
Kelly Denato
I am More Than What You See
I’ll Show You Mine If You Show Me Yours
Stargazer
The Death of the Dancing Bear
Stickymonger
Sick Girl’s Club
An Ordinary Day
Relax in Anxiety
Teacups Have Eyes
