In February 2019, Stephen Friedman Gallery will bring together a group exhibition of international female artists who are currently shaping the language of figuration: Heidi Hahn, Donna Huddleston, Becky Kolsrud, Naudline Pierre, Mathilde Rosier and Antonia Showering. The works in the exhibition explore how each artist taps into the ethereal realms of fantasy, dreams and the unconscious mind to challenge preconceived notions of gender and identity.
Introspective and brooding, Heidi Hahn’s paintings explore the psychological underpinnings of femininity. Adopting the isolated confines of the picture plane to challenge traditional concepts of what it means to be a woman, Hahn’s melancholy figures occupy a world far removed from reality.
Donna Huddleston’s drawings, sculptures and installations frequently combine autobiographical elements with film history and theatre design. Huddleston’s work includes a magical realist element in which the experience of modern urban females is touched by intimations of the occult, the supernatural and science fiction.
Becky Kolsrud’s surreal, compressed figures occupy a space of fantasy, testing conventional ideas about how the female nude can be implemented as a form of allegory; engaging with historical depictions of the surreal, reclining bodies are scaled up and become synthesised with mountain ranges and vast, azure lakes.
Co-opting spiritual and religious iconography, Naudline Pierre’s vivid paintings act as portals into unearthly realms. Set against apocalyptic backgrounds, the artist depicts haunting interactions between ethereal beings to explore primal expressions of intimacy.
Mathilde Rosier’s ethereal paintings depict weightless, hybrid figures undergoing bodily acts of transformation. Exploring the psychological and physical experiences connected with ancient rituals, her works allow viewers to lose their perception of time and space by offering an alternate, otherworldly dimension.
Antonia Showering’s work engages with the fragility and ephemeral nature of memory. Imbued with a sense of the uncanny, her ghostly recollections of family gatherings are depicted with a transitory quality as if just on the cusp of being forgotten.
Heidi Hahn
Heidi Hahn (b. 1982; Los Angeles, USA) lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Hahn holds an MFA from Yale University, New Haven and a BFA from The Cooper Union, New York. She is currently an acting Professor of Painting and Drawing at Alfred University, New York. She has been the recipient of several awards, including a residency at Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture in 2010. Hahn has forthcoming solo exhibitions at Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles (2019) and Nathalie Karg Gallery, New York (2020).
Donna Huddleston
Donna Huddleston (b. 1970; Belfast, Ireland) was raised in Australia. She holds a Bachelor of Theatre Design from National Institute of Dramatic Art, Sydney (1997) and a Diploma of Fine Art from National Art School, Sydney (1994). Recent exhibitions include: ‘The Critic as Artist’, Reading Prison, Reading International (2017/18); ‘Dreamers Awake’, White Cube, London (2017); ‘Making and Unmaking’, curated by Duro Olowu, Camden Arts Centre, London (2016); and ‘Interstellar’, curated by Michael Bracewell, Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi, Berlin (2015). Sadler’s Wells, London commissioned Huddleston to make a large-scale work for display in the theatre’s upper foyer in 2012. Huddleston was nominated for the Max Mara Art Prize for Women in collaboration with the Whitechapel Gallery: 1st Edition (2005). Huddleston has a forthcoming solo exhibition opening in May 2019 at Drawing Room, London.
Becky Kolsrud
Becky Kolsrud (b. 1984; Los Angeles, USA) lives and works in Los Angeles. She received her MFA from UCLA in 2012. Kolsrud has had solo exhibitions at JTT, New York (2017) and Tif Sigrids, Athens, Georgia (2017), amongst others. Recent group exhibitions include those at Foxy Production, New York; Jessica Silverman Gallery, San Francisco; and Maccarone, New York. Her work is in the collection of the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles and was recently acquired by Hall Art Foundation, Vermont.
Naudline Pierre
Naudline Pierre (b. 1989; Leominster, Massachusetts, USA) currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. She holds an MFA from the New York Academy of Art and a BFA from Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan. She was the recent recipient of the Terra Summer Residency Fellowship in Giverny and the Estée Lauder Merit Scholarship Award. Pierre’s work has been included in group shows in New York, Los Angeles, London, and had a solo exhibition at Thierry Goldberg Gallery, New York in 2017.
Mathilde Rosier
Mathilde Rosier (b. 1973; Paris, France) lives and works in Bourgogne, France. Rosier studied at École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux Arts, Paris and Université Paris-Dauphine. Recent works and performances have been shown at Fondazione Guido Ludovico Luzzatto, Milan (2018); Castello di Rivoli, Turin (2018); Der Tank Institut Kunst, Basel (2016); Razem Pamoja Foundation, Krakow (2015); Fiorucci Art Trust, Stromboli (2015); Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Milan (2014); Dortmunder Kunstverein (2012); kestnergesellschaft, Hannover (2012); Kunstpalais, Erlangen (2011); Camden Arts Centre, London (2011); Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach (2010); Jeu de Paume, Paris (2010); and Serpentine Galleries, London (2009). Her work can be found in collections including Julia Stoschek Collection, Düsseldorf; Kadist Art Foundation, Paris; and UBS Art Collection.
Antonia Showering
Antonia Showering (b. 1991; London, UK) has a BA in Fine Art from City & Guilds of London Art School (2016) and recently graduated with an MA in Fine Art from The Slade School of Fine Art in 2018. She is currently participating in ‘Bloomberg New Contemporaries’ at South London Gallery until the end of February 2019.
For more information, please contact info@stephenfriedman.com.
For press enquiries, please contact Carlotta Dennis-Lovaglio at carlotta@scott-andco.com.
Image: Becky Kolsrud, ‘Allegorical Nude (Double Reflection)’, 2018, Oil on canvas, 101.6 x 81.3cm (40 x 32in)
