You are here

Whit Harris: Best-Laid Plans

Type:

Country:

City:

Venue:

Categories:

How many artists: 
1
Date: 
Friday, 6 September 2024 to Saturday, 19 October 2024
Opening: 
Friday, 6 September 2024 - 6:00pm to 9:00pm

Peninsula is pleased to present Whit Harris’s inaugural New York City solo exhibition, Best Laid Plans, opening on September 6 from 6-9 PM at 13 Monroe Street, New York, NY. Harris’s most recent paintings further build upon her explorations of the black femme body. In this ongoing series of works, the figures depicted are manifestations of Harris’s own emotional turmoil, formed by being entrenched in a culture of patriarchy, colonialism, and white supremacy.

The subjects of these paintings are trapped in varying Arcadian scenes evocative of the classical, European tradition of landscape painting. However, in Harris’s hands, these environments come to represent society’s unrelenting oppressive systems. The femmes’ bodies are in conflict with their settings—twisted, cramped, and in some cases, segmented into pieces. Grass, clouds, rain, and smoke wrap around their forms, contorting the figures into cartoonishly over-extended poses. The sky, ground, and other natural features poke and prod, crush and entangle. These highly exaggerated figures, sharply contrasting with their settings, delve into the complexities of identity and power. 

Her gestural implementation of paint further heightens the agitation and sense of claustrophobia evident within the artworks. Scratches are directly carved into the surfaces, on the skin of the figures, emulating scars and wounds. Stray loose strings of canvas are allowed to cut through and invade the picture plane. Paint is slashed and swept on the artworks in chaotic, brushy swaths. Raw edges and expressive brushwork create a visceral energy, blurring the boundaries between figure and ground. Her works show a contemplation on nature’s harsh, untamed forces and their intersection with human experience, trauma, and the inner psyche—reminiscent of the automatism techniques championed by Surrealist artists such as André Masson.

Yet, despite the all-encompassing tumult that surrounds these femmes, Harris makes sure they possess a type of defiant beauty. Completely unashamed and without inhibitions, they proudly flaunt their nude forms. Styled with immaculate braids and perfectly manicured acrylic nails, the figures display a glamor that rides the line between ancestral and contemporary. They strut, preen, and gesture with the same iconic aplomb seen in Sha’Carri Richardson’s highly documented poses after she crosses the finish line. They dance, play music, sensually pose, and smoke marijuana with nonchalance. Small acts of brash, somewhat cheeky resistance allow for the subjects to establish their humanity within these hostile environments. Joyful transgressions against their rigid surroundings, both big and small, give them agency and enable their survival.

Artist ( Description ): 

Whit Harris (b. 1985, Brooklyn, NY) is a multi-disciplinary artist working across drawing, painting, and ceramic media. Her works feature figures that stretch, recline, wriggle and contort themselves in exaggerated expressions as they navigate otherworldly environments. The images become metaphors for the artist’s psychological adaptation to unpredictable and hostile environments borne out of anti-black social structures. Harris was awarded a 2024 NYSCA/NYFA Fellowship in Painting. She has exhibited in group exhibitions in New York, Miami, Los Angeles, Seattle and Munich and has had solo exhibitions at New York and Los Angeles galleries. Harris holds an MFA from Hunter College, New York, and works as an adjunct professor at both Brooklyn College and Borough of Manhattan Community College. She lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

Telephone: 
2039218527
Venue ( Address ): 

13 Monroe Street, New York, NY 10002

Peninsula , New York, NY 10002

 


 

Follow @_artweek

 


 

 

Other events from Peninsula

view
Into the Light
10/25/2024 to 12/07/2024
view
Whit Harris: Best-Laid Plans
09/06/2024 to 10/19/2024
view
Chemistry
05/17/2024 to 06/22/2024
view
Mike Olin Paintings
02/16/2024 to 04/14/2024

Pages

 

Related Shows This Week

view
Tipping Point
10/08/2024 to 10/15/2024
view
A portes ouvertes. Il mosaico aperto, nella materia, forma e colore. Una ricerca tutta ravennate.
10/12/2024 to 10/13/2024
view
Mark Gleason: Nowhere Here
10/05/2024 to 10/26/2024
view
Dóra Maurer: PB – Persona Berg
09/17/2024 to 11/15/2024
view
Ying Hung: PUZZLE BREATHING
10/04/2024 to 10/18/2024
view
Steve Silver: Empirical Horizons
09/05/2024 to 11/02/2024
view
Prints & Printmaking
09/05/2024 to 12/05/2024
view
The Midnight Paintings by Virginia Sharkey
10/10/2024 to 11/04/2024

Pages