{"id":829,"date":"2021-06-10T08:02:33","date_gmt":"2021-06-10T00:02:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/?p=829"},"modified":"2021-06-08T11:07:29","modified_gmt":"2021-06-08T03:07:29","slug":"sasha-gordons-perturbing-paintings-of-recreation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/artist\/sasha-gordons-perturbing-paintings-of-recreation\/","title":{"rendered":"SASHA GORDON\u2019S PERTURBING PAINTINGS OF RECREATION"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reimagining scenes from her childhood, Sasha Gordon<\/a> creates vibrant worlds brimming with quotidian details incongruous with memory\u2019s elusive nature. Using vibrant colored pencils and neon oil paints, the Brooklyn-based painter depicts versions of herself engaging in the recreational activities typical of her suburban upbringing in Westchester County, New York. While her palette is often unnaturally electric, Gordon takes care to capture naturalistic particulars, such as delicate eyelashes and individual stitches on jeans and sneakers. Her subjects appear almost childlike, with large, glassy eyes so dilated they resemble onyx orbs set in equally round faces. Even though Gordon\u2019s figures enjoy leisurely activities\u2014they practice archery, play the violin, or camp in the woods\u2014there\u2019s a palpable sense of unease in her paintings.<\/p>\n

Describing her experiences growing up as a biracial Asian girl in a predominantly white and heteronormative neighborhood during a virtual studio visit, Gordon told me, \u201cEverything I did felt like I was performing for men, especially white men.\u201d To reverse this dynamic, she populates her scenes exclusively with characters created in her own image. This means men are markedly absent. Still, her figures appear on edge with their forced, uneasy smiles, implying that they\u2019ve nonetheless internalized the pressure to conform to a particular model of upper middle class white suburban comportment.<\/p>\n

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Sasha Gordon:\u00a0Garden Troll<\/em>, 2021, oil on canvas,55\u00bd by 31\u00bc x 1\u00bd inches.<\/span>COURTESY THE ARTIST AND MATTHEW BROWN, LOS ANGELES. PHOTO ED MUMFORD.<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

For her second solo exhibition, on view at Matthew Brown in Los Angeles through July 10, the recent RISD graduate implicates the viewer as the cause of her subjects\u2019 apprehension. The show\u2019s title, \u201cEnters Thief<\/a>,\u201d mimics a stage command, and suggests that visitors are infiltrating a place where they do not belong\u2014right on cue. Instead of an object, however, we steal the sense of safety and comfort that comes with privacy. Often, viewing the paintings, we find ourselves disrupting intimate moments: a shower, a romantic date by a pond.<\/p>\n

Gordon\u2019s new paintings contend with the psychological effects of being watched. In\u00a0Concert Mistress<\/em><\/a>\u00a0(2021) and\u00a0Sore Loser<\/em>\u00a0(2021), her protagonists are observed by others within the composition, and by us outside of it. In the former painting, the subject, pushed to the foreground, plays the violin to an unseen audience, her face contorted into an almost menacing grin. Behind her, a head peeps over the edge of the window, lurking. Fulfilling the model minority stereotype that expects excellence all the time, the woman anticipates being watched and performs accordingly, a sentiment Gordon shares. \u201cI feel like I have to be a certain type of Asian woman, a certain type of queer person, a certain type of body size,\u201d Gordon said. \u201cI\u2019ve always been very hyperaware, and I think that\u2019s a big aspect of my work.\u201d In fact, Gordon used to play the violin, but abandoned the instrument because she felt embarrassed by the stereotype of the naturally gifted Asian musician.<\/p>\n

In a way, Gordon is making up for lost time by filling her paintings with queer Asian women like herself, people she didn\u2019t have in her life until she entered college. And yet, her characters are unable to escape rivalries, comparison, and competition. In the diptych\u00a0The Archer<\/em><\/a>\u00a0(2021), one panel depicts a shirtless woman pointing her arrow out at the viewer. Reflected in her left eye, we see the subject of the accompanying panel\u2014another shirtless woman balancing a shiny red apple on her head. With a slight frown, the second woman appears forlorn and dejected as she weakly signals a thumbs-up, ignoring the arrows scattered around her feet\u2014evidence of the archer\u2019s imprecision. The two halves of the diptych are exhibited on opposite walls, catching viewers in the crossfire between the archer and the target. Considering the similar appearances of both subjects, the work can be read as a fight against oneself, or as a conflict between those with overlapping identities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a wall that\u2019s still separating me from this community,\u201d Gordon told me, specifically referring to her \u201cqueerness and struggles with mental illness<\/a>.\u201d Oftentimes, this division manifests in her work through juxtapositions of two Asian women: one with a neon gradient skin tone and another with a more naturalistic complexion, as in\u00a0Garden Troll<\/em>\u00a0(2021). Beneath their glossy details and tantalizing color palettes, Gordon\u2019s scenes emphasize the difficulty that accompanies imagining utopian spaces unburdened by internalized hegemonic values. But she boldly and playfully keeps imagining nonetheless.<\/p>\n

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Source\uff1ahttps:\/\/www.artnews.com\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reimagining scenes from her childhood, Sasha Gordon creates vibrant worlds brimming with quotidian details incongruous with memory\u2019s elusive nature. Using vibrant colored pencils and neon oil paints, the Brooklyn-based painter depicts versions of herself engaging in the recreational activities typical of her suburban upbringing in Westchester County, New York. While her palette is often unnaturally […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":830,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,13,7,4,3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-829","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artist","8":"category-auction","9":"category-events","10":"category-gallery","11":"category-latest-news"},"yoast_head":"\nSASHA GORDON\u2019S PERTURBING PAINTINGS OF RECREATION - Investable Art Auctioneer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Reimagining scenes from her childhood, Sasha Gordon creates vibrant worlds brimming with quotidian details incongruous with memory\u2019s elusive nature.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/artist\/sasha-gordons-perturbing-paintings-of-recreation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"SASHA GORDON\u2019S PERTURBING PAINTINGS OF RECREATION - 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