Eleanor Harwood Gallery is pleased to present a group show with Tara Daly, Mary Finlayson, Rachel Kaye and Sarah Thibault.

The title Pure Beauty refers to the title of the most complete book on John Baldessari, depicted in Mary Finlayson's mosaic, as well as to the artwork, Pure Beauty, 1968, by Baldessari.

The four women in this exhibit all share a stunning command of color, and in contrast to Baldessari’s conceptual artwork, they are often focusing on much more experiential and emotional ideas. Their version of “Pure Beauty” is a more modern and connected version of beauty, one responsive to the natural and supernatural (Thibault) world around us.

Tara Daly’s beautifully woven works present a talismanic solution to environmental and societal ills, while Finlayson’s elaborate mosaics are more about memories, home life, and interior spaces. Thibault’s oil paintings are “inspired by painting’s history as well as autobiographical experiences to create works that center the female perspective and prioritize a mystical view of the world.” Rachel Kaye’s works are abstractions, sometimes of foliage, flowers, the natural world, and more recently references to the female body. Kaye’s work feels like deep meditations on form and gesture. The remnant of her hand in the drawings is particularly visceral, while the brush strokes in the oil paintings feel languid and gentle.

The works by these women are in stark contrast to Baldessari's work, and to the conceptual movement that often merited ideas over aesthetics. These artists all present magnificently delicious renderings in joyous color with a deep imprint of their labor and craft being integral to the pieces.

These works are the art-world equivalent to “New Sincerity” writing. The term describes novels, and writing that give genuine and empathetic treatment to the human condition and concerns. The description of “New Sincerity” posited that this new movement in writing (and by extension art-making) was in contrast to postmodern cynicism and snarky rib-nudging, to an “insider joke” take on humanity. These artists are much more authentic in their thinking than the era of emotional  distance and “cleverness”. They are all deeply present in their art-making and thinking, very much at one with the larger natural world around us, and in turn present us with a new version of cleverness, one in tune with the reverberations of climate change, the shift in seasons, a night sky, and the poetry of the every day.

Eleanor Harwood Gallery