Derek Eller Gallery is pleased to present Sweet Distemper, a group exhibition organized by Isaac Lyles, featuring work by Anna Betbeze, Samara Golden, Tamara Gonzales, Davina Semo, and Despina Stokou.

Sweet Distemper is a riot of paint, mirror, collage, rug, and chain. Urgency and aggression animate the works; play and vim blossom out of the distressed surfaces. With continued looking, the layers of experiential and formal complexity unfurl: Anna Betbeze’s operatic expanses of burnt wool jut against the hard concrete and blackened mirrors of Davina Semo, whose rhythmic grids flow into the cascading lace patterns of Tamara Gonzales’s spray-painted canvases; Despina Stokou’s cancelled text paintings and explicit collages jam into Samara Golden’s Migraine sculptures which hang ominously from golden chains. The rich materiality, glowing with wreckage and action, generates an experience sinister yet exuberant, turbulent but considered: a sweet distemper.

Anna Betbeze is based in New York. Solo exhibitions include: Kate Werble Gallery, New York; Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams, MA; Francois Ghebaly, Los Angeles; and Lüttgenmeijer, Berlin, Germany (upcoming). Group exhibitions include: Philadelphia Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, PA; Luxembourg & Dayan, New York; Brand New Gallery, Milan, Italy; Modern Collections, London, United Kingdom; and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York. 

Samara Golden is based in Los Angeles. Solo exhibitions include: Night Gallery, Los Angeles and Frieze Frame, Frieze Art Fair, New York. Group exhibitions include: CANADA, New York; ACME, Los Angeles; The Suburban, Chicago; and LAX Art, Los Angeles; and Various Small Fires, Los Angeles (upcoming).

Tamara Gonzales is based in New York. Exhibitions include: Martos Gallery, New York; Norte Maar, Brooklyn; James Fuentes, New York; The Journal Gallery, Brooklyn; and Daniel Weinberg Gallery, Los Angeles.

Davina Semo is based in New York. Solo exhibitions include: Galerie Gabriel Rolt, Amsterdam, Netherlands; Martos Gallery, New York; Rawson Projects, New York. Group exhibitions include: Greene Naftali, New York; and Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York; The Journal Gallery, Brooklyn.

Despina Stokou is based in Berlin. Solo exhibitions include: Galerie Krobath, Vienna, Austria; Grimmuseum, Berlin, Germany; Kalfayan Galleries, Athens, Greece. Group exhibitions include: Mikael Andersen Gallery, Berlin, Germany; Breeder Gallery, Athens, Greece; and Midway Contemporary Arts, Minneapolis, MN.