About the Exhibit - Resentment
In a continued ‘mini-tribute’ to Team Gallery, Resentment, was a show by Alissa McKendrick, on view in Team’s project space from June 6th – July 26th, 2019.
I was immediately drawn to McKendrick’s works because of how she paints, it’s impressionism in a gothic/Edwardian setting.
“If, as the show’s title, Resentment,’ suggests, McKendrick’s joyriding demons represent anthropomorphized grudges and grievances, bitterness has never been channeled with such insouciant appeal. Fashion illustration meets Fauvism, with grace notes of Edward Gorey and Ludwig Bemelmans, in McKendrick’s fantastic world.” - The New Yorker (source)
The women in McKendrick’s work are inspired by women in the 1930’s and 1940’s fashion magazines, which explains where their air of nonchalance comes from.
“As menacing as they are glamorous, the paintings are filled with unsettling details: look closely at the woman in pink plaid and you’ll see a tiny green figure kicking and screaming in her purse. “ - Art in America (source)
“The painting (below) suggests that transcending resentment is only possible when one has the reins in one’s hands when one is the driver. This is underscored in an untitled painting of an open road, the broad pink highway standing out against the muddy, greenish-brown ground, seemingly merging vaginal and phallic sexuality.” - Hyperallergic (source)
“Though the sweet girls and irreverent destroyers in these paintings might seem staunchly opposed, McKendrick refuses to fall into the reductive trap of pitting frilly against fierce. Instead, her works merge the two in weird combinations, chafing at pressures to either regurgitate or reject limiting models of femininity.” - Art in America (source)
About the Artist - Alissa McKendrick
McKendrick received her BFA in Painting from the Rhode Island School of Design. She lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
