Rose's Grenadine: Eva Lewis and Meghan Murray
When:
Wednesday, Apr 10, 2024 11:00a -
Sunday, Apr 14, 2024 4:00p
Wednesday, Apr 10, 2024 11:00a -
Sunday, Apr 14, 2024 4:00p
Where:
LaiSun Keane
460C Harrison Ave C8A
Boston, MA 02118
Admission:
FREE
Hosted by:
Categories:
Art, Good for Groups, Kid Friendly, Pet Friendly
Event website:
https://www.laisunkeane.com/exhibitions/54-rose-s-grenadine-eva-lewis-and-meghan-murray/
LaiSun Keane is proud to present “Rose’s Grenadine”, a two-person exhibition with Eva Lewis and Meghan Murray, on view from April 5 to May 19, 2024.
Lewis and Murray collaborated in the creation of “Rose’s Grenadine” with a focus on the feminine figure in society. This women focused exhibition, challenges the ways in which female-presenting people historically exist in public spaces. The artists integrate the idea of Rose’s Grenadine, a pomegranate-flavored syrup, through the ways female bodies are traditionally portrayed as sweet and subservient. Lewis and Murray highlight the dissonance between traditional portrayals of girls and young women and how they choose to portray women. Their work acts as a continuation of revolutionary and subversive female painters such as Mary Cassatt and Boston-native Ellen Day Hale, along with modern female film directors such as Sofia Coppola and Greta Gerwig.
Lewis’ rose-tinted paintings capture the feelings of coming of age as a female-identifying person in the Midwest through the stories of her closest friends in the forefront. The subjects pose for themselves or for Lewis herself in everyday life, expressing their interests, passions and personalities. With eyes aimed out at the viewer and bodies filling the frame of the canvas, her subjects project confidence in the face of the societal expectations of the real world. Lewis’ red-toned acrylic paint with overlays of oil explores medium, casting light as its own persona.
The pieces created by Murray examine the disconnect between the physical image and the personal context that is severed from the material in photo albums. Her pieces underscore the romanticized way society looks upon each others’ lives, without the intimacy and understanding of truly knowing someone else's experiences. Murray centers implicit and explicit storytelling at the forefront of her practice, viewing work through both an artistic and archival perspective.
Both 2022 MFA graduates from Boston University, Lewis and Murray present candid human figures in daily life, extracting beauty from commonplace scenes. Red hues tie the artists’ works together under the umbrella of saccharine views of femininity. Both artists invite a critical eye as they point to underlying societal expectations placed upon women and processes of whitewashing. Lewis works and lives in Ohio, and Murray works and lives in the Greater Boston area. We are proud to have previously featured the two artists, with Lewis’ work highlighted in her 2022 solo exhibition, “Disparate” and Murray’s work presented in the recent 2023 group exhibition “What’s New in Still Life, Portrait, and Landscape”.
Please email us for details: [email protected]
