Edward Thorp Gallery is pleased to announce Talk Show, an exhibition comprising of six painters, who share a self-assurance in working with representation combined with an ability to tell a story. These populated scenes help us experience more than just the literal or physical world they provide imaginative windows into a fantasy vision of our present and our past. Through a synthesis of representational subject matter, invention and technique skillfully manipulating the properties and materiality of their chosen medium, they review interpret and explore multiple narratives creating memorable situations.

Katherine Bradford Maureen Cavanaugh Clare Grill Judith Linhares Bettina Sellmann Judith Simonian

The mysterious imagery in Katherine Bradford’s intimate scenes are at once poetic and atmospheric. Her approach juxtaposes the epic with the private as open color fields of muted and subdued pigments mediate the materialism of abstraction with the prosaic directness of folk art. While Bradford carefully works these surfaces combining minimal gestures with a modulated realism she avoids any undertone of melancholy what is revealed instead is her vigorous engagement with the painting process.

Maureen Cavanaugh’s paintings, exploring issues of vitality and vulnerability present a range of subtle ambiguities told with expressive brushwork. Cavanaugh playfully fuses notions of public and private exploiting her unique language by depicting figures and objects intertwined in various settings. Themes are assembled and crafted creating a rich tapestry of stories and ideas with brightly colored interiors, populated landscapes, still lifes and girls at play. Like small vignettes, they present an animated treatment of story and tender insight.

Clare Grill makes paintings that portray private and often unremarkable settings in which human figures appear to be engaged in simple everyday activities. Time seemingly stands still in these episodes as the figures take on a still life-like quality. Yet, the deeper we go into Grill’s dialogue of the imaginary, we become increasingly more aware of the combination of references including Grill’s own family history; suddenly this reinterpreted world becomes all the more enigmatic.

Women and the natural world controlled by a supernatural force are recurring themes in the works of Judith Linhares. With broad and vivid brushstrokes, she creates personal mythologies that are both powerful and expressive. Depicted is a world populated with figures in ceremonial bliss. Forceful and elusive, employing an abstracted language with a compelling narrative drive, the works portray a unique experience of inner life,

The figures of Bettina Sellmann emerge from painterly clouds of bold watercolor. Anarchy of characters and dialogues ensue with immediate brush strokes The works are quite minimal in their materiality and process but rich in their associations: Lyrical forms of early 20th century expressionism echo an earlier predecessor in the mannerist forms of the Baroque.

Judith Simonian’s compositions function theatrically but are undefined and unpredictable. Spaces invariably mutate, merge or collide, and what should be clearly defined becomes fluid. Her process of accumulation where surfaces are built up in layered imagery in a complex combination of gestural painting and stenciling. Avoiding a simple representation of architectural sources she depicts environments with tangible moods suggesting a more personal relationship to architectural space.