Tripoli Gallery: ‘Inner Life’, 7.27 – 8.26th w/ Opening Reception 7.27th @ 6-8 PM

Wainscott – Tripoli Gallery is pleased to present Inner Life: July 27 – August 26, 2024, featuring works by artists Ashley Bickerton, Katherine Bradford, Sabra Moon Elliot, Tracey Emin, Mary Heilmann, Yung Jake, Dan McCarthy, Miles Partington, Lauren West, and Lucy Winton. Opening with a reception on Saturday, July 27, from 6:00 to 8:00 pm, this group exhibition brings together a range of artists who have all, at one time or another, extracted their own inner lives, putting them on view through their collective, multidisciplinary practices.

Gallerist and curator of this show, Tripoli Patterson shares, “Inner Life reflects on the constant battles and balancing acts we all find ourselves playing, maybe today more than ever. Amidst discovering our true purpose while we inhabit these physical bodies, societal pressures build on what we are projecting to the world, who we are, and what we stand for. In a society that is so often overwhelmed with the importance of image, it is easy to lose ourselves and forget why we are here. More often than not, our careers take over and somehow become more important than the loved ones in our lives. Artists are always the leaders that we look to as they harvest those feelings from the core of their beings and portray them externally, on canvas with oils or acrylics, or whatever medium carries their true emotions to the outside world. They bring this nostalgic feeling back to life and remind the viewers that the inner life is equally as important as the outside one.”

Tripoli Gallery has worked with the artists in this show previously and is honored to aggregate a group of artworks creating a new and reflective dialogue. Looking at the sensitivity and bravery of artists like Ashley Bickerton (1959–2022), who painted a portrait of his daughter next to him in Io and Daddy (2022) during the later stages of ALS while witnessing his body giving way and knowing his time was very limited. Katherine Bradford transports spiritual essence into her figurative work titled Standing Swimmers in the Pink Tide (2024), as does Dan McCarthy with his Gingham Guitar and Chilliwick (2010). Both McCarthy and Bradford paint figures that could be anyone or everyone and yet feel so connected to each of their own hands. So much is undefined and left to those present to imagine, yet at the same time, all the information we need is right there. The concept of Inner Liferelays the visual narration of the authentic self, a self that is without question untainted. This is also the case with Yung Jake’s hoody (2019), where a cartoon character named Kelvin functions as an abstract avatar of sorts, or shield, that the artist can—like the garment itself—hide behind. Tracey Emin has unabashedly accessed and revealed her private life onto many canvases since the inception of her career. Her abstractions delve into the realm of dreamlike representations, interpreted through painterly lines. Sabra Moon Elliot and Miles Partington use sculptural forms to remove any pretense or fear, allowing their inner child to emerge. Lucy Winton and Lauren West each access their inner lives through surreal undertakings of subjectivity that we can all imprint onto through nostalgia and daydreams.

Inner Life is on view through August 26, 2024, and welcomes all beachgoers to pause in reflection, in a moment where the summer heat fades away and is replaced by a cool, metaphorical breeze.