Anton Stuebner is Associate Director of Catherine Clark Gallery, former intern at Creative Growth, and guest curator of No More I Love Yous, on view in the Creative Growth Gallery February 1–March 11, 2020.
What made you interested in continuing the conversation Leigh Markopoulos started with her curation of Love Is A Stranger in 2010? What new answers do you think you've arrived at?
When I first saw Love is a Stranger in 2010, I was struck by Leigh's fearlessness in acknowledging that desire and disability were not mutually exclusive. The work in the exhibition was boldly sensual in a way that I hadn't seen in contemporary exhibitions. In envisioning this show as an unofficial "sequel" to Leigh's, I wanted to think more broadly about intimacy, and how we foster deeper connections with one another as well as with ourselves. Some of the works are playfully explicit and foreground the body as a site of celebration - Casey Byrne's wonderful and "anatomically correct" ceramics immediately come to mind. But other works foreground the kind of intimacy and vulnerability resulting from an introspective turn inwards, as with Susan Janow's powerful video "Questions" and its sequel "Answers."
Installation view of No More I Love Yous, Creative Growth Gallery
Can you talk a little bit about what you see in the evolution of Ron Veasey's work since Love Is A Stranger?
It is exciting to trace the evolution in Ron's line work and bold use of color. In revisiting his older works, I am struck by how soft they appear in comparison to his newer paintings. The broad brushstrokes and muted palette feel looser than in his recent works, where his figures are rendered with sharp lines and vibrant, super flat colors. When Sarah (Galender Meyer) shared Ron's newest paintings, I was immediately knocked out: every formal element feels stripped down and essential. The figures in Ron's work radiate with emotional intensity and vulnerability that, for me, is absolutely dazzling.
Ron Veasey work featured in No More I Love Yous (left) and Love Is A Stranger (right)
How did you choose which artists to include that weren't a part of Leigh's curation?
The curation of this show was very intuitive, and focused more on the work than a particular roster of artists. I was delighted to be reminded that both Juan Aguilera and Ron Veasey were included in Leigh's exhibition, and I love that unanticipated but wonderfully poignant connection between the two shows.
Rosena Finister, Untitled (RF 112), 2017, Acrylic on paper, 15 x 22 inches
What are you most excited about in this exhibition?
I am particularly excited that No More I Love Yous highlights artists from Creative Growth's roster who produce wonderful work but who are perhaps less known to a wider audience. Rosena Finisiter's highly illustrated paintings, for example, depict animals in dialogue with another while in amorous chase. While playful and often funny, her work also exhibits an uncanny sensitivity to the tensions that arise from courtship, romance, and interpersonal exchange.