Photos courtesy of the artist and Jack Hanley Gallery
Mother’s Magazines is Danielle Orchard’s second solo show with New York’s Jack Hanley Gallery. Orchard’s large-scale canvases, some eight-feet wide, reveal a confident painter who’s recently made the switch from small detail brushes to large brushes (the symbol of courage in the studio.) There’s something inherently late-90s about Orchard’s style, as though I could imagine Charlotte, Samantha, and Carrie attending her opening in Sex and the City. Orchard’s playfulness with art history, Cubism and Picasso-like compositions, paired with her re-appropriation of the female form, are nostalgic of an art and fashion world where self-reflectivity was once novel. While aesthetically pleasing in their pastel hues, nude female forms garnished with wine glasses and flowers, there’s a melancholy depicted in these works. Absentmindedly, Orchard’s women don’t seem to fully take part in the activities they’re pictured in, rather entranced in a 100-mile stare. Orchard’s work raises questions about the representation of the female body within modernist painting. John Berger’s ever-relevant quote pertains here: “Men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at.” Orchard’s women are indeed objects of vision, “a sight.” Mother’s Magazines is on view at Jack Hanley Gallery until March 1st. – Claire Milbrath
Painter Sculpting, 2019 Oil on Canvas 55 x 42 inches
Bird Bath, 2019 Oil on Panel 20 x 16 Inches
Parade Float, 2019 Oil on Canvas 82 7/8 x 98 inches
Danielle Orchard’s Mother’s Magazines
Photos courtesy of the artist and Jack Hanley Gallery
Mother’s Magazines is Danielle Orchard’s second solo show with New York’s Jack Hanley Gallery. Orchard’s large-scale canvases, some eight-feet wide, reveal a confident painter who’s recently made the switch from small detail brushes to large brushes (the symbol of courage in the studio.) There’s something inherently late-90s about Orchard’s style, as though I could imagine Charlotte, Samantha, and Carrie attending her opening in Sex and the City. Orchard’s playfulness with art history, Cubism and Picasso-like compositions, paired with her re-appropriation of the female form, are nostalgic of an art and fashion world where self-reflectivity was once novel. While aesthetically pleasing in their pastel hues, nude female forms garnished with wine glasses and flowers, there’s a melancholy depicted in these works. Absentmindedly, Orchard’s women don’t seem to fully take part in the activities they’re pictured in, rather entranced in a 100-mile stare. Orchard’s work raises questions about the representation of the female body within modernist painting. John Berger’s ever-relevant quote pertains here: “Men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at.” Orchard’s women are indeed objects of vision, “a sight.” Mother’s Magazines is on view at Jack Hanley Gallery until March 1st. – Claire Milbrath
Painter Sculpting, 2019 Oil on Canvas 55 x 42 inches
Bird Bath, 2019 Oil on Panel 20 x 16 Inches
Parade Float, 2019 Oil on Canvas 82 7/8 x 98 inches
Big Tub, 2019 Oil on Canvas 48 x 60 inches
Beach Couple, 2019 Oil on Canvas 55 x 42 inches