NARSOLIPS — Anthony Cudahy

NARSOLIPS, Cooler Gallery, Brooklyn, NY

November 1 - 22, 2016

The initiator for this group of paintings was Caravaggio's Narcissus, specifically that work's space: a strange void, the emptiest black surrounding a single reflection, looping forever. Alberti called Narcissus the beginning of painting, "embracing by means of art the surface of a pool." These paintings resist embrace, however, and reveal a fundamental distrust: of others, of subjective experience, of oneself.

Is the image I create for myself a flower or a sword? The reflection is muted, but someone(thing) squints back. Narrative collapses: the child leading his mother is her father and the grave is close enough to kick dirt onto your own crowning head.

Photography: Cooler Gallery

KoaM, 2016
Oil on canvas
24 x 18 inches

mirrored, 2016
Oil on canvas
48 x 36 inches

solips, 2016
Oil on canvas
48 x 48 inches

desertshore, 2016
Oil on canvas
48 x 72 inches

RG_N, 2016
Oil on canvas
20 x 16 inches