Cutwork Press Release | martacerveragallery

Cutwork

Clare Grill

Galería Marta Cervera is honored to present Cutwork, Clare Grill's first solo show in Spain and in Europe. Grill’s work draws on a vast vocabulary of shapes, colors, and compositional choices, inspired by antique embroidery samplers, as well as highly decorated birth, baptismal, and marriage certificates from the 18th and 19th centuries. The show is comprised of paintings and various sized works on paper, each of which informs and draws upon the other.

Included are works from Grill’s ongoing series of ‘Samplers’: painted works on paper inspired by embroidery samplers which serve as a stock of shapes, marks, colors, and compositions for her paintings on linen. As she writes, “Samplers, made by little girls as part of their schooling, displayed the alphabet, numbers, little decorative motifs, and often a prayer or a verse about death and getting into heaven. They’re complicated artifacts: full of reverence and beauty, obedience and skill, but also hand cramps, pin pricks, boredom, and perhaps rage. They’re made by small hands but they’re heavy little things. I pull from them for my paintings. I want to keep them, parts of them, the touch of them, the brokenness of them, the sweetness and the melancholy of them, and give them some kind of stage. Dress them up and shine a light.”

Grill’s newest series of small works on paper are called ‘Signets,’ a reference to seals used to mark documents and possessions, often impressed into a dab of wax. Signets represent a name, a person, and mark occasions. Of them, Grill writes, “I got my signet ring when I made my First Communion: CAG. It fit my middle finger when I got it but at some point I had it sized for my pinky. The letters have faded away, I wear it all the time. May 9, 1987 it says on the inside. I remember I fell asleep in the lawn that day in my white dress, which was my great- grandmother’s communion dress. When my mom took it off me that night, I was covered in chicken pox. The dress was covered in lace, the oldest lace I’d ever seen. My cousin still has it, though she changed it some. I think it has less lace now.”

The show’s title, Cutwork, refers to an antique form of embroidery in which bits of fabric were removed and the remaining hole was embellished with thread. A precursor to lace, cutwork was used by nuns to decorate vestments for priests, and to beautify household garments and textiles. “I like the word cutwork,” Grill writes. “I like how it sounds to say it. I like how it looks.” the marks and shapes that migrate across Grills’ works on paper, her ‘Samplers,’ and her paintings, Cutwork evokes the parts removed or extracted; removed but cared for, paid attention to, embellished, touched, given another look. Handed down. Borrowed, mended, reworn.

Clare Grill (born 1979, Chicago, IL) received her MFA from the Pratt Institute in 2005 and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2011. Recent solo exhibitions include Wich Language and Oyster, M+B, Los Angeles, CA; At the Soft Stages, Derek Eller

Gallery, New York, NY; There's The Air, Derek Eller Gallery, New York, NY; and Touch'd Lustre, Zieher Smith & Horton, New York, NY. Group exhibitions include Of Flesh and Air, Marta Cervera Gallery, Madrid, Spain; The Feminine in Abstract Painting, Milton Resnick and Pat Passlof Foundation, New York, NY; Deep! Down! Inside!, Hales Gallery, NY; and New Skin, curated by Jason Stopa, Monica King Gallery, New York, NY. Her work has been reviewed in Artforum, ArtNews, Hyperallergic, the Brooklyn Rail, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The Boston Globe. Clare Grill lives and works in Queens, NY.

Cutwork

Clare Grill

La galería Marta Cervera tiene el honor de presentar CUTWORK, la primera exposición de Clare Grill en España y Europa. La obra de Grill, cuenta con un vasto vocabulario de formas, colores y elecciones de composición, inspiradas en bordados antiguos, a la vez que certificados de nacimiento, baptismales y maritales de los siglos XVIII y XIX. La exposición, consta de cuadros, así como obras de óleo sobre papel de distintos tamaños.

En esta exposición se pueden ver papeles de la serie "Samplers": óleos sobre papel inspirados en pruebas de bordados que sirven como fuente de formas, marcas, colores y composiciones también para sus pinturas sobre lino. Como ella misma escribe "Samplers, hechos por niñas pequeñas como parte de su formación escolar, representan el alfabeto, números, motivos decorativos y a menudo, una oración un verso sobre la muerte y el ascenso al cielo. Son objetos complicados, llenos de veneración a la belleza, obediencia y habilidad, pero también, calambres en las manos, pinchazos, aburrimiento, y quizás rabia. Están hechos por manos pequeñas, pero son cosas pequeñas y fuertes. Los escojo para mis obras. Deseo conservarlos, partes de ellos, su tacto, quebrantamientos, su dulzura y melancolía, y darles alguna clase de escenario. Vestirlos y encender una luz."

También pueden verse en la exposición, las nuevas series de obras pequeñas llamadas "Signets" en referencia a sellos que se usaban para marcar documentos y posesiones, a menudo impresos con cera. “Signets” representa un nombre, una persona, y marca ocasiones. Sobre ellos, Grill escribe: "Recibí un anillo firmado cuando hice mi primera comunión, CAG. me quedaba bien en el dedo anular, pero llego el momento en que servía para el meñique. Las cartas se han ido deshaciendo, lo llevo todo el tiempo. En el interior está escrito, Mayo 9, 1987 . Recuerdo que ese día me quede dormida en el césped con mi traje blanco, que fue el traje de comunión de mi abuela. Cuando mi madre me lo quitó aquella noche, esta invadida por la varicela. El vestido estaba lleno de lazos, el lazo mas antiguo que había visto. Mi prima aún lo conserva. Creo que ahora tiene menos lazos."

La exposición, titulada CUTWORK, se refiere a una manera antigua de bordar, donde partes pequeñas se sacaban, y los agujeros se embellecían con hilo. Un precursor del lazo, el CUTWORK lo usaban las monjas para decorar las vestimentas de los párrocos, y para embellecer menajes del hogar y textiles. Me gusta la palabra CUTWORK, " escribe Grill, " me gusta como cuenta cuando se pronuncia, me gusta como se ve." Las marcas y que recorren las obras sobre papel de Grill, sus “Samplers” y sus cuadros, CUTWORK evoca partes extraídas, sacadas, pero con cuidado, con atención, embelleciéndolas, tocándolas para cambiarlas de aspecto. Transmitiendo. Prestadas, remendadas, reusadas.

Clare Grill (1979, Chicago, IL) recibe su MFA en Pratt Institute en 2005 y posteriormente, atiende al Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture en 2011. Entre sus exposiciones individuales recientes se incluyen Wich Language and Oyster, M+B, Los Angeles, CA; At the Soft Stages, Derek Eller Gallery, New York, NY; There's The Air, Derek Eller Gallery, New York, NY; and Touch'd Lustre, Zieher Smith & Horton, New York, NY.

Entre las exposiciones en grupo recientes: Of Flesh and Air, Marta Cervera Gallery, Madrid, Spain; The Feminine in Abstract Painting, Milton Resnick y Pat Passlof Foundation, New York, NY; Deep! Down! Inside!, Hales Gallery, NY; y New Skin, comisariada por Jason Stopa, Monica King Gallery, New York, NY. Algunas críticas en prensa como
Artforum, ArtNews, Hyperallergic, the Brooklyn Rail, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, y The Boston Globe. Clare Grill vive y trabaja en Queens, NY.