a day ago
Inès Longevial Brings it Back to the Body in ‘Skin of a Storm'
Summary
ForInès Longevial, a body is a home. It's an ethos reflected in her self-portraiture – diaristic captures, rich with washes of crimson, chantilly and ultramarine. Her current solo exhibition atAlmine Rechin Tribeca distills this spirit into a sublime study of skin as the French artist takes her portraits to new heights.
Pace and process groundSkin of a Storm. Central to the exhibition is a suite of new oil paintings, many of which were completed in a one-sitting 'flow-state' as Lynn Maliszewski' describes in a recent press statement. 'The female form becomes a surface littered with subtle footnotes, like an odd wrinkle in a pleated skirt or the deep crease of a dog-earred page.' Longevial filters subjects through her own myopic vision, resulting in self-portraits that feel luminous, alive and unapologetic; skin that is unconcerned with viewer's gaze and rather relishes in her own.
A set of drawings see an arresting shift, with deadpan eyes meeting the audience head-on. Facial features become one with sharp pliés and ballet slippers, snakes and butterflies, suggesting themes of transformation, myth-making and the dream of freedom. Also on view for the first time are pairs of monotypes, a lesser shown aspect of Longevial's practice. While initially appearing as 'identical twins,' closer inspection reflects a life in flux where 'skin narrates the artist's relation to her changing world – stretching, sagging, morphing and reflecting altercations or victories no one could know the true depth of.'
Skin of a Stormis now onviewin New York through August 1. In addition to the exhibition, Visage Théâtre, a new publication of Longevial's drawings and poems is nowavailablevia Almine Rech Editions for $42 USD.
Almine Rech Tribeca361 Broadway,New York, NY 10013
