Through a series of ephemeral Chlorophyll print leaf portraits depicting women of all ages, nationalities, races, and stories, Siobhán Byrns explores the complexities of womanhood by inviting viewers to consider ways women are seen as both individuals and as projections of societal expectations. The portraits are intended to create a dialogue about the power dynamics embedded in how women are perceived and treated. The exhibition title is taken from a children’s story, The Girl with the Green Ribbon by Alvin Schwartz, where a green ribbon represents a closely-guarded secret and a symbol of a woman’s boundaries and the mystery of her autonomy.
The Audacity of Paint celebrates the resiliency and power of paint as a medium in the context of the AI tsunami in which we live. Nevertheless, paint persists with its sensual qualities and malleable, human mark-making – audacious not only in its refusal to defer to digital modes, but also in its ability to express impractical joy. Audacious like Woody Guthrie’s guitar and like the artists themselves, who dare to paint “at a time like this.”
The 114th is a return to the origins of the Annual Exhibition. For the first 50 years of the series, exhibitions were made up almost entirely of paintings. Since then, exhibitions have highlighted the expanding breadth of media practiced by contemporary American artists. The Audacity of Paint is the first Annual in almost 30 years to focus exclusively on painting.