HALSEY MCKAY GALLERY

For her third solo exhibition with the gallery, Denise Kupferschmidt draws from the full range of her vocabulary developed over recent years. Graphic, and primarily figurative, her murals, paintings, drawings, and sculptures coalesce in the gallery as a mise en scène recalling the environment in which she works.

Prominently in the foreground, like the subject of a magazine cover or billboard, Kupferschmidt’s subjects are displayed and posed with the language of advertising. Sumi ink drawings, concrete sculptures, and acrylic paintings of female bodies are presented as things to look at and study. Kupferschmidt presents the figure with all of its intentional curves as purposeful. Her women are symbols of strength.

Inanimate objects serve as corporeal still life where vases act as hips, heeled shoes appear as butts, and keyholes act as busts. Movement, and its potential to be stagnated is another ongoing motif. Figures appear clearly in motion yet sometimes without legs, feet or heads. Occasionally placed in front of, or inside grids, some subjects are trapped for the gaze of an un-seen viewer. Some figures are frozen in the movements of dance while others are seen walking, about to step out of the picture frame. Any hint of narrative or intent is left open ended but the agency of her characters is apparent.

Denise Kupferschmidt received her BFA from the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston. Recent solo exhibitions have been with Halsey McKay Gallery and Cooper Cole Gallery, Toronto. Her work has been included in numerous group exhibitions, including at BAM, Foxy Productions, Eleven Rivington, Nicole Klagsbrun and Tracey Williams, NY; amongst others. She was an organizer of the itinerant group-show series Apartment Show, has been included in Modern Painters 100 Artists to Watch and was a 2010 NADA Emerging Artist. Kupferschmidt is represented by Halsey McKay Gallery.