About
The exhibition came together following Louise Bonnet’s observation about the latent psychological tension in Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss. “Don’t look at the faces,” she said. “Look at how the woman’s toes are curled.”
—Bill Powers
Gagosian is pleased to present Domestic Horror, an exhibition organized by Bill Powers. On view will be works by Natalie Ball, Louise Bonnet, Ginny Casey, Genieve Figgis, Ewa Juszkiewicz, Tanya Merrill, Cheikh Ndiaye, Rene Ricard, Pauline Shaw, Lucien Smith (with Glenn O’Brien), Vaughn Spann, and Chloe Wise. Featuring several young and emerging artists, this exhibition includes many specially commissioned works.
Addressing the darker fears that arise when we encounter the unknown, Domestic Horror probes the friction between the civilized world and baser human impulses. The word “domestic” contains a potent double meaning here, alluding to the unintended consequences that can occur—in private life and in a larger national and cultural life—where internalized anxieties meet external pressures.
Ndiaye and Spann confront the perils of political turmoil by disrupting familiar images of cultural stability: the office space of the state newspaper of Senegal, in shambles after an anti-government protest; an American flag, deconstructed and reassembled with a single ominous, looming star. Working with structures of concealment and visibility, Figgis and Juszkiewicz construct surreal, discomforting scenes of physical and societal suppression. Figgis’s ghoulish, psychedelic painting of a well-dressed family mocks the ritual of aristocratic portraiture, while Juszkiewicz parodies Louis Léopold Boilly’s Portrait of Madame Saint-Ange Chevrier in a Landscape (1807) by suffocating the titular subject with fabric and foliage wrapped tightly around her head.
#DomesticHorror
Artists
Natalie Ball
Louise Bonnet
Ginny Casey
Genieve Figgis
Ewa Juszkiewicz
Tanya Merrill
Cheikh Ndiaye
Rene Ricard
Pauline Shaw
Lucien Smith
Vaughn Spann
Chloe Wise
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In Conversation
Louise Bonnet and Stefanie Hessler
Gagosian hosted a conversation between Louise Bonnet and Stefanie Hessler, director of Swiss Institute, New York, inside 30 Ghosts, the artist’s exhibition of new paintings at Gagosian, New York. The pair explores the work’s recurring themes—the cycles of life, continuity and the future, and death—and discuss how the conceptual and pictorial structures Bonnet borrows from seventeenth-century Dutch still-life painting converge to form a metaphor for hard labor, basic animal urges, and the things we often try, but fail, to hide.
Reanimating History: Ewa Juszkiewicz and Jennifer Higgie in Conversation
Writer and art historian Jennifer Higgie met with Ewa Juszkiewicz to learn more about the painter’s process, her varied inspirations, and her views on the social and emotional roles of art.
Body Horror: Louise Bonnet and Naomi Fry
Cultural critic Naomi Fry joined Louise Bonnet for a conversation on the occasion of Louise Bonnet Selects, a film program curated by the artist as part of a series copresented by Gagosian and Metrograph. The pair discussed how the protagonists of the seven selected films are ruled, betrayed, changed, or unsettled by their bodies, focusing on David Cronenberg’s The Brood (1979).
In Conversation
Louise Bonnet, Johanna Burton, and Celinda M. Vázquez
Join Gagosian for a panel discussion with Louise Bonnet; Johanna Burton, director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; and Celinda M. Vázquez, chief external affairs officer of Planned Parenthood Los Angeles (PPLA), on the occasion of Bonnet’s donation to PPLA of the proceeds from the sale of her painting Red Study (2022).
Louise Bonnet: On “Red Study” and Supporting Reproductive Rights
Louise Bonnet speaks with Freja Harrell about her new painting, her donation to Planned Parenthood Los Angeles, and the role of art in the fight for reproductive justice.
Louise Bonnet and Dodie Bellamy
Poet and novelist Dodie Bellamy visits the artist Louise Bonnet at her Los Angeles studio as she prepares for an exhibition of new works in Hong Kong and the inclusion of one of her paintings in the 59th Biennale di Venezia. The two discuss the power of horror, the intensity of memory, and their creative processes.
News
Tour
Domestic Horror
Thursday, October 3, 2019, 6pm
Gagosian, Park & 75, New York
Bill Powers will lead a second tour of Domestic Horror, currently on view at Gagosian, Park & 75, New York. The exhibition, organized by Powers and featuring several young and emerging artists, addresses the darker fears that arise when we encounter the unknown, and probes the friction between the civilized world and baser human impulses. To attend the free event, RSVP to nytours@gagosian.com. Space is limited.
Tanya Merrill, Cat with Eel and Snail, 2019 © Tanya Merrill
Tour
Domestic Horror
Thursday, September 26, 2019, 6pm
Gagosian, Park & 75, New York
Bill Powers will lead a tour of Domestic Horror, currently on view at Gagosian, Park & 75, New York. The exhibition, organized by Powers and featuring several young and emerging artists, addresses the darker fears that arise when we encounter the unknown, and probes the friction between the civilized world and baser human impulses. To attend the free event, RSVP to nytours@gagosian.com. Space is limited.
Ewa Juszkiewicz, Portrait of a Lady (after Louis Léopold Boilly), 2019 © Ewa Juszkiewicz