"American Popsicle", 36"x48", 2017, acrylic and oil on canvas
show #53:
Emilie Stark-Menneg
SUSPECTS
Curated by: Jacob Rhodes
Opening Reception: Thursday, September 13th, 6-8pm
Dates: September 13th, - October 20th, 2018
Field Projects is pleased to present Emilie Stark-Menneg's solo exhibition, SUSPECTS, curated by Jacob Rhodes.
Emilie Stark-Menneg's gifted economic aesthetics are offset by the sensuality of her opulent colors and wry imagery. Combining airbrush and hard-edge, Stark-Menneg's postdigital painting techniques toy with viewers' expectations, subverting assumed focal points the image emerges as a mirage within a pixelated ether.
Figures lyrically bleed into the environment even as the succulent ground encroaches upon them-- a symbiotic relationship wherein hierarchies are confused and defused. Commanding humor and wit, Stark-Menneg grapples with contemporary feminine identity, the parasitic nature of painting history, and the rot of popular culture-- weaving in family lore, Chagall’s animal mysticism, Hitchcock’s foreboding, and Fellini’s restlessness, to forge her own unique identity and utopic myths through these hallucinatory visions.
Emilie Stark-Menneg (b. 1984) is an interdisciplinary artist, working in painting, video and sculpture. In 2007, she received a BFA in combined media from Cornell University, and is currently an MFA candidate in painting at RISD. Stark-Menneg has had solo exhibitions at Allouche Gallery, NYC, the Nesto Gallery of Milton Academy, Milton, MA, Elizabeth Moss Gallery, Falmouth, ME, Makebish Gallery, NYC,Kijidome, Boston, MA, Leonard R. Craig Gallery, Unity College, Unity, ME, and the Coleman Burke Gallery, Brunswick, ME. Her installation, “When We Land” was included in the 2015 Portland Museum of Art Biennial. This year Stark-Menneg will be collaborating with the poet Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon on a performance for the Cornell Council for the Arts Biennial. And in 2019 she will be exhibiting in the DeCordova Museum’s 2019 Biennial.
"Vampire Squad", 70"x70", 2018, acrylic and oil on canvas
"In Formation", 70"x70", 2018, acrylic and oil on canvas
"I Spy", 11"x14", 2018, acrylic and oil on canvas
"Taste of Water", 11"x14", 2018, acrylic and oil on canvas
"Candy Ants", 70"x70", 2018, acrylic and oil on canvas
"Juliet of the Spirits", 70"x70", 2018, acrylic and oil on canvas
"Tie Dye Sheets", 14"x11", 2018, acrylic and oil on canvas
"Ballerina Snack", 14"x11", 2018, acrylic and oil on canvas
Katherine Bradford on Emilie Stark-Menneing’s Exhibtion
“Emilie’s soft focus hard focus paintings seduce us with gorgeous lime green and fuchsia people acting strangely. What are we to make of the row of navy blue women (one has lost her hand to gravity) who stare at us while we look at their backs? I think they are wanting to get through the hole in the ceiling or are they under the floor?
I especially like the blue sisters lined up in matching red striped bathing suits. Here the artist gives us the feeling of a bright summer day under an even bluer sky. I’m glad the cloud has been x’ed out or I’d think this group had it too easy. There’s also an x-ray mouth filled with teeth of course but also ants, popcorn and candy. Thanks for filling us up with your wondrous world Emilie Stark- Menneg. You’ve given us a sinister beauty that comes from one of the biggest hearts full of whimsy I know. Don’t stop now.” –K.B. 2018
"Ballerina Rodeo", 2018, 48"x36", acrylic and oil on canvas
"Triple Wave", 14"x11", 2018, acrylic and oil on canvas
"Leap Flame" 14"x11", 2018, acrylic and oil on canvas
