One of the most original and influential artists of the past three decades, Yuskavage creates works that affirm the singularity of the medium of painting while challenging conventional understandings of genres and viewership. At once exhibitionist and introspective, her rich cast of characters and their varied attributes are layered within compositions built of both representational and abstract elements, in which color is the primary vehicle of meaning.
For this exhibition, Yuskavage presents new large-scale paintings, each set within an imagined artist’s studio. Saturated in deep, jewel-like pigments, these works form part of her ongoing exploration of the processes and complexities of art making. The studios become stages where characters from her oeuvre are intertwined, and where time moves backward and forward.
The “rendez-vous” of the show’s title alludes to the unique way in which painting allows for different moments in time to coexist in one space simultaneously. The works establish a dialogue between personal iconography and a tradition of studio portrayals by artists as varied as Gustave Courbet, Henri Matisse, Georges Braque, and more contemporary figures like Philip Guston and Bruce Nauman.
