SAM LIPP

Sam Lipp’s work explores the intersection of images and power, particularly representations of the body in relationship to systems of control. In paintings and drawings on steel, Lipp utilizes proprietary and idiosyncratic techniques of paint application and mark making, emulating systematic procedures of mechanized image reproduction—pixelation, xerographics—as well as the material traces such production entails—degradation, deconstruction. Lipp often employs a personally developed method where steel wool is used as a paintbrush to create pin-sized dots of impasto oil paint, applied in successive layers to create hyper-pointillist images. Other works use pencil directly on stainless steel, creating an interplay of refracted light between the surface of the steel and the sheen of the graphite. In both material and form, the works frequently allude to conventions of urban signage—the authoritative directives of the state. In some works, screws driven directly through the steel surfaces underscore this relationship—a reminder of the sign’s duality as both concept and material, a subject for the viewer’s consideration and an object dictating their response.

Sam Lipp (b. 1989) lives and works in New York. Recent solo exhibitions include Derosia, New York (2022); Bonny Poon, Paris (2019); Mackey Apartments, Los Angeles (2017); and Bodega (Derosia), New York (2016, 2014). Select group exhibitions include Soft Opening, London (2023); Bodega (Derosia), New York (2021); Cell Project Space, London (2019); The Meeting, New York (2019); and The National Portrait Gallery, London (2018).

EM ROONEY

Em Rooney’s multimedia practice is anchored in a study of film, photography, and the material indices of these seemingly ephemeral, auratic genres. In the artist’s earlier work, analog methods of photography were paired with sculptural framing devices. Using steel brackets, leaded crystal enclosures, pewter embellishments, and other heavy, industrial materials that engage tactility and imply a substantive weight to their contents, these works reinforce the photographic image’s material presence, as pictures grow increasingly untethered from authorship and origin in the digital era. Rooney’s images focus on the experiences of women and girls, her style deliberately pedestrian yet narratively opaque, indicating everyday mystery. As Rooney’s sculptural objects have increased in scale in recent years, so have they developed a formal autonomy from photography, while maintaining a conceptual link to film: costume design, filmic ephemera, and the portrayal of women onscreen inform the artist’s structural and material techniques, many of which are improvised in her studio and original to her practice. Based on botanical forms, or, most recently, the eclosion cycle of butterflies, Rooney’s sculpture continues to allude to the dichotomy between seen and unseen, as it is uniquely experienced by women.

Em Rooney (b. 1983) lives and works in Canaan, CT. Recent solo exhibitions include Peana, Mexico City (2023); Derosia, New York (2022); François Ghebaly, Los Angeles (2020 – 2021); Fons Welters, Amsterdam (2019); Bodega (Derosia), New York (2018 & 2016); and Beeler Gallery at The Columbus College of Art and Design, Columbus, OH (2016). Recent group exhibitions include deCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA (2022); White Columns, New York (2022); Kristina Kite Gallery, Los Angeles (2021); Candace Madey Gallery, New York (2020); François Ghebaly, Los Angeles (2019); Kaviar Factory, Henningsvaer, Norway (2019); Adams & Ollman, Portland, OR (2019); Galerie Crèvecoeur, Paris (2018); Foxy Production, New York (2018); The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2018); Document, Chicago (2018); and Simone Subal, New York (2017). Her work has been reviewed in The New York Times, Frieze, Artforum, Aperture Magazine, i-D, Art in America, and Artnews, among others. Rooney’s work is in the collection of the The Museum of Modern Art, New York.