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A group show of Raul de Lara, Shanique Emelife, Sihan Guo, and Tahnee Lonsdale premises art as a counterweight to ideological constraint. These four artists, whose works draw on their globalized experiences and transcendent aesthetics, challenge cultural and political conservatism through explorations of migration, spirituality, and interconnectedness.
Raul de Lara’s sumptuous wooden houseplant sculptures, “Familia” (all works 2024), “CDMX/ Mexico City,” and “Pending Flowers,” reveal intricate craftsmanship in every carved leaf and stem, and adjust to respond to their environment. The adaptability of these houseplants echo de Lara’s own journey of being transplanted from Mexico to the United States, while speaking to broader themes of migration, adaptation, and family bonds. Like his wooden plants confined to their pots, de Lara remains unable to return to Mexico due to his immigration status, a persistent constraint that shapes both the material — the wood is deliberately cracked — and the metaphorical core of his work.
Shanique Emelife’s work is also deeply rooted in a shared immigrant experience. Her paintings center on her family’s homeland of Nigeria and its otherworldly lore. “Ifee’s Fear” portrays her young mother standing in a red-earth courtyard of their enclosed village, positioned next to her older sister. “The Door” initially appears to focus on a simple cement, clay, and corrugated metal entryway flecked with geckos, as if the door itself were the subject. But its position opposite “Ifee” hints at deeper meaning. Upon closer inspection, the door reveals the vague outline of a figure — an ominous presence that reflects the “fear” of the work across from it. Meanwhile, “Absence” and “African Sun” provide aerial views of the village and the intense sunlight, suggesting an incorporeal presence that, by their proximity to the other works, ties into the threads of foreboding and memory.
Collectivity is also found in Tahnee Lonsdale’s paintings, which depict a covenant of ethereal, feminine figures. Rendered in hues of blue and red or yellow and orange, these figures evoke either a sense of guardianship or an eerie otherworldliness. Lonsdale achieves this effect with lace-thin layers of paint, creating a spectral presence. Only the eyes, hands, and feet of figures are distinct, guiding the viewer’s interpretation of these interconnected beings as arbiters of faith in gender, identity, and the generational cycles of womanhood.
Sihan Guo’s phantasmagorical paintings also cascade with precise yet fluid textures, evoking ethereal beings, clouds, and mycorrhizal networks. Drawing inspiration from the textured interplay of Mark Bradford, the layered symbolism of Julie Mehretu, and the vivid, hallucinogenic palettes of contemporary art, Guo combines translucent washes of pigment with bold, tactile strokes and controlled drips, building a dynamic tension between precision and chance, depth and surface. Inspired by ecological systems and spiritual phenomena, her work blurs the lines between the natural and the intangible, embodying Freud’s observation that “Our unconscious…behaves as if it were immortal,” and offering a vision of interconnected existence beyond human and digital constraints.
The works in this exhibition collectively dismantle the boundaries imposed by the narrow designation of “immigrant” in the United States, embracing instead a globalized, interconnected ethos. De Lara’s wooden monstera sculptures signify both personal and ecological migration, while Emelife, Lonsdale, and Guo explore the interplay between human and transcendental forms, challenging Western spiritual and cultural binaries. Together, these artists offer a dynamic rebuke to the conservative ideologies of their surroundings, asserting the enduring strength, complexity, and beauty inherent in their lived experiences and work.
Raul De Lara, Shanique Emelife, Sihan Guo, Tahnee Lonsdale continues at Alexander Berggruen (1018 Madison Avenue, Floor 3, Upper East Side, Manhattan) through January 15, 2025.
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