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Lemonade. Always.

CURATED BY SALLY MORGAN LEHMAN

 

SPRING 2024

CURATOR STATEMENT

It was my great pleasure to bring together this group of artists from so many fabulous submissions!

 

There are several threads that link these creative voices, the first being a sense of joy and playfulness in the work. There is an abundance of vivacious color in these images and a palpable pleasure in the act of making. Nature is an inspiration for a number of painters, but not one of them is depicting the innocent Eden of the art history books. Even painter Laura Colomb or sculptor Sandra Lapage, who are lamenting changes to the landscape around them, still create with such verve and enthusiasm that they feel like optimists.

 

There is also a dynamic gesture, movement, and patterning in the show, which suggest an energetic unfolding and create visual density. The figurative artists selected contributed evocative depictions of the human form, yet they are interpretive, and opinionated. What we are looking at are obviously artworks, commenting on their subjects, adding layers of narrative and critique to the topic at hand rather than just depicting it verbatim.

 

Within the group there is also a sense of longing and mystery that feels idiosyncratic and fresh. In the work of Fern Apfel, Gabe Langholtz, and Rebecca Wu, there is an affecting quirkiness to the narrative, and a glimmer of opportunity, maybe missed, maybe in the future.

 

Above all, the artists selected work with such attention to their craft, whatever the medium. They are masters with brushes, fibers, polymers, and recycled metals. They are adding emphatically to the discourse around the culture of our time. In the process, they are helping to create a lasting record of our human joy and optimism, as well as the disquiet that life in this particular moment in time holds for us all.

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ABOUT SALLY MORGAN LEHMAN

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Sally Morgan Lehman is the founder and director of Morgan Lehman Gallery, a contemporary art gallery based in Chelsea since 2005. Ms. Lehman has a diverse background in the visual arts, which includes museum education, exhibitions design, state and citywide public art placement, and private and corporate collections management.

 

Ms. Lehman is an active member of Art Table, POWArts and NADA, and has served as a visiting critic and juror at Wave Hill, Guttenberg Arts, the Wassaic Project and the Hunter MFA program among many others. She currently teaches

Professional Practice for Visual Artists at Montclair State University and has presented regularly on that subject to students from Boston University, FIT, and the The Art Students League.

 

MORGAN LEHMAN is a contemporary art gallery representing a small group of emerging and mid-career American artists working across media. Founded by Sally Morgan and Jay Lehman, the gallery opened in 2002, and has continuously

provided a platform for original and press worthy exhibitions. Gallery artists have consistently received coverage in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, Art in America, The Brooklyn Rail and Hyperallergic, among others.

 

In addition to its represented artists, the gallery collaborates directly on exhibitions and public projects with many other artists, and offers extensive art advisory services to curators, art consultants, designers and corporate and private collectors.

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Lemonade. Always.

FEATURED ARTISTS 

Lisa Alonzo

Fern  Apfel

Jerry Birchfield

Sarah Brenneman

Thomas Bunnell

Laura Colomb

Antonia Constantine

Emma Francis

Inness Hancock

Kristy Hughes

Beth Humphrey

David Kasparek

Colleen Kiely

Keri Kimura

Emily Klass

Gabe Langholtz

Sandra Lapage

Christina Massey

Jack Masters

Claire McConaughy

Sarah More

Lauren Rice

Liz Rundorff Smith

Jane Sangerman

Annabelle Schafer

Frank Locke

Lawre Stone

Vivian Tong

Elise Wehle

Xiangjie Rebecca Wu

Elise Wehle

Elise Wehle

Vivian Tong

Vivian Tong

Lawre Stone

Lawre Stone

Liz Rundorff Smith

Liz Rundorff Smith

Anabelle Schafer

Anabelle Schafer

Jane Sangerman

Jane Sangerman

Lauren Rice

Lauren Rice

Sarah More

Sarah More

Jack Masters

Jack Masters

Claire McConaughy

Claire McConaughy

Frank Locke

Frank Locke

Christina Massey

Christina Massey

Sandra Lapage

Sandra Lapage

Emily Klass

Emily Klass

Gabe Langholtz

Gabe Langholtz

Keri Kimura

Keri Kimura

Colleen Kiely

Colleen Kiely

David Kasparek

David Kasparek

Inness Hancock

Inness Hancock

Beth Humphrey

Beth Humphrey

Kristy Hughes

Kristy Hughes

Emma Francis

Emma Francis

Laura Colomb

Laura Colomb

Antonia Constantine

Antonia Constantine

Thomas Bunnell

Thomas Bunnell

Birchfield

Birchfield

Sarah Brenneman

Sarah Brenneman

Fern Apfel

Fern Apfel

Lisa Alonzo

Lisa Alonzo

Rebecca Xiangjie Wu

Rebecca Xiangjie Wu

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