Smith-Stewart is pleased to present THE LOVE THAT HAS NO OPPOSITE, the solo New York debut of LA-based artist GEORGANNE DEEN. The exhibition debuts five new paintings and three new works on paper.

Deen’s body of work, which spans paintings, drawings and objects, offers an intoxicating mix of heady anti-establishment. Partly informed by underground comix, Deen’s provocative sensibility is summed up by a highly irresistible and incredibly infective visual language. Her subject matter takes its cue from personal excavations of past turmoil. Weaving image and text, Deen’s dark, and often riotous visual content rouses the shadowy passion teeming inside us.

“The Love that Has No Opposite” refers to a state of conscious awareness wherein there is no division between mind and body, this and that, you and me. It is also known as Cosmic Consciousness. Many have experienced this state of bliss through the use of drugs, sex, or through practicing disciplines, which expand consciousness. Eckhart Tolle states that we liberate vast amounts of consciousness previously trapped in compulsive thinking by becoming fully present and connected to the animating presence within us.

Ruminating upon the animating presence led me to draw and paint animals. I found that when I placed them in special relationships with women it had a very calming effect upon me, filling me with the neurochemicals from which we derive a sense of contentment. The choice of colors, application of paint, the setting and other purely decorative decisions further enhanced this experience.

In an era where two of the most lucrative businesses in which to invest are legal and illegal drugs, the desire to find inner peace through the subtle attention and observation of the natural world within and around me brought forth this series. They’re my first experiments. Like alluring travel posters, some promised more than they actually delivered but at the very least, I got out of town for a while and my world looked different to me when I returned.” —-Georganne Deen