Guest curator Anton Stuebner presents No More I Love Yous, an exhibition that explores how intimacy and desire are expressed through a visual language. Featuring painting, sculpture, and video from Creative Growth’s studio and archives, the exhibition highlights seven artists who offer poignant, perceptive, and often humorous meditations on how we form relationships with ourselves and others: Juan Aguilera, Casey Byrnes, Rosena Finister, Susan Janow, William Scott, Gerone Spruill, and Ron Veasey.
The exhibition’s title references a 1986 song by English duo The Lover Speaks, which was covered by Scottish singer Annie Lennox in 1995 to popular acclaim. In his curatorial notes, Stuebner writes, “Lennox’s version has always been a paradox to me, equal parts torch song and anthem. At first listen, it sounds like a ballad about overcoming heartbreak and longing. At its core, however, the song explores how we struggle to express our desires, and how language often fails to capture the complexities of our interior lives, leaving us ‘in silence,’ as Lennox so evocatively sings.”
Language serves as a powerful tool for negotiating one’s desires in many of the works on view. Rosena Finister’s paintings, for example, depict animals in seemingly amorous “chase” with one another. Though they appear whimsical at first glance, the dialogue exchanged by her characters—“Don’t you push on me”; “I said no”—raises larger questions about how we define consent and our personal boundaries for intimacy. A work on paper by William Scott, in comparison, depicts a man and woman in glamorous prom attire with the text “Class of 1978 in Another Life,” an image that offers an idealized version of romance that reflects a different kind of hopeful longing. Other works focus on how the body presents itself as a site of both celebration and introspection. Casey Byrnes’s ceramic planters, for instance, depict male figures that are nude from the waist down, their absent torsos replaced by cavities for flowers and other vegetation. Deliberately playful, Byrnes’s ceramics also celebrate the human body as a fecund site for growth and new life. Ron Veasey’s large-scale nudes, in contrast, depict pastel figures staring out into the distance, evoking vulnerability through a stripped-down use of line and color.
No More I Love Yous continues a conversation started by the late art curator, critic, and educator Leigh Markopoulos (1968–2017), a former board president and longtime champion of Creative Growth and its artists. Markopoulos’ 2010 exhibition Love Is a Stranger (titled after a 1983 song by English synth duo Eurythmics) explored the intersections between desire and disability. The upcoming exhibition is imagined as an unofficial sequel to that show; it is also a tribute to Markopoulos and her indelible impact on the Creative Growth community.
Curator's Note: This exhibition would not have been possible without the collaborative efforts of many extraordinary people. First, my principal thanks to the artists at Creative Growth, whose work continues to enrich, challenge, and expand how I think about creative practices.
A special thank you to Sarah Galender Meyer, Tom di Maria, and the staff at Creative Growth for their generosity and time, for facilitating introductions to the artists and their work, and for expert guidance through the center’s inventory and archives—a treasure trove if there ever was one. Thank you to Tony Bravo for guiding me towards the show’s title, and to Greg Flood for insights on installation and exhibition layout. Thank you as always to Susan Etlinger for that extra encouragement when I needed it most.
Three dear friends and former board members introduced me to Creative Growth: Chris Ospital, Ben Ospital, and Barbara Anderson. Kim Mizuhara, Michael Hall, and Tara Tucker made Creative Growth an especially joyful place to work when I volunteered here nearly a decade ago. They are part of my extended Creative Growth family, and I am inspired by their commitment to this extraordinary organization and its mission.
This exhibition is dedicated to the late Leigh Markopoulos. Leigh was a brilliant scholar, an incisive critic, and an irrepressible wit whose work continues to inspire many. She was also a wonderful colleague and friend, who was equally adept at riffing on the Venice Biennale or English romantic comedies. Her 2010 exhibition at Creative Growth, Love Is a Stranger, remains a touchstone for me. This exhibition would not have happened without it, or her.
I am constantly humbled by my family: Tom Stuebner, Dorothy Stuebner, and Alison Rodrigues. My parents and my sister are among the smartest and kindest people that I know. They taught me to be curious at an early age, which is an amazing gift that I appreciate more than ever now that I work in the arts.
Michael Rubel, everything is possible because of you. Thank you, every day and always.