Sloan Fine Art is pleased to present Elektra, by Kristen Schiele in the front gallery and The Forest for the Trees, by Clare Grill in the project room.

With her new body of work Elektra, Kristen Schiele continues her celebration of strong female characters and deconstruction of architectural settings. Utilizing a variety of techniques including silkscreen, painting and ink transfers, Schiele achieves a disjointed, densely layered effect, creating paintings that are at once timeless, nostalgic, fierce and contemporary. Compositions are cut apart, x-rayed and reassembled. Stages are set and cast with subjects straight from classic pulp novel and fashion magazine covers. As in her inspiration, B movie and classic horror films, the objects, patterns, costumes and characters are mythological, kitsch symbols. The final works are designed and decorated environments in which the “bad girl” clearly holds all the cards - if not a knife.

Kristen Schiele earned her BFA from Indiana University, her MFA from American University and also studied at the Hochschule der Kunste in Berlin. Her work has been exhibited worldwide at CWB Gallery in Berlin, Caren Golden Fine Art in New York, the Portland (Oregon) Institute for Contemporary Art and the Corcoran Museum of Art to name a few. She participated in the Bronx Museum’s Artist in the Marketplace program and has completed residencies at the Provincetown Work Center, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and the Lower East Side Printshop. This is Kristen Schiele’s second solo exhibition at Sloan Fine Art. She currently lives and works in Brooklyn.

Through exquisite paint manipulation that includes transparent layering, aggressive sanding and delicate impasto, Clare Grill executes romantic, filmy images that evoke memories of beliefs and stories handed down, held dearly, or sadly lost through the years. Rendered in a color palette that wavers between washed-out and burnt-in, Grill's paintings allude to the confusion, fear, obedience, and anxiety attached to discovering the world we inherit and the histories we are part of. In The Forest for the Trees, Grill encourages the viewer to see what’s familiar in all its complexity.

Clare Grill studied in St. Paul, MN before moving to New York where she earned her MFA from Pratt Institute. She has exhibited at venues including Edward Thorp and Jen Bekman in New York, Rare Device in San Francisco, Roots and Culture in Chicago, the Center on Contemporary Art in Seattle and the Islip Art Museum. She has participated in the Bronx Museum’s Artist in the Marketplace program, the Drawing Center's Viewing Program, Aljira's Emerge Program and the Vermont Studio Center’s residency program. Clare Grill lives and works in Queens.

Sloan Fine Art is located at 128 Rivington Street on the Lower East Side of New York City. Hours are Wednesday to Sunday, noon to 6, and by appointment.

For more info on me visit my official website
www.rickyday.net