Silent Opera for the Unsound Mind

MARQUEE PROJECTS is delighted to present Silent Opera for the Unsound Mind, the first solo exhibition of paintings by Emily Blair Quinn. An opening reception will be held on Saturday, September 18 from 5-7pm. Prior to the reception there will be an Artist Talk and Q&A at 4pm at the gallery.
 
Upon first encountering Emily Blair Quinn’s paintings, we are filled with curiosity by their semblance of bright, old-fashioned illustrations from a peculiar children’s book that never existed. We are on an adventure. There are looking glasses aplenty in Quinn’s disquieting domestic interiors, and a population of surreal female figurines that seem to be appearing, disappearing, or undergoing other mysterious transmogrifications. Some have been accidentally fractured or perhaps vandalized, the debris of a tea party gone wrong; some appear as if in larger-than-life-size dollhouses or disorienting, extreme close-ups from cinema. These theatrical dioramas deftly present a poetics of unease within a deceptive, childlike simplicity. There is both claustrophobia and exquisite calm here, as well as metaphysics and physical collapse. As with any true adventure, this is not all just fun and games.
 
Quinn’s process is complex and multifaceted – another kind of adventure, behind the scenes. Before painting, she performs many experiments that produce her unsettling works: building custom figurines out of clay; pouring and dripping melted wax on them; laboriously painting intricate china patterns on them before breaking them; partially gluing them back together; casting them in resin and shining multi-colored lights on them; casting them in wax and burning them as candles; fusing multiple wax figurines together. Then, she arranges them into the still lifes that become her enigmatic canvases, beckoning us down the rabbit hole.


For further information, please contact info@marqueeprojects.org  

MARQUEE PROJECTS Inc.
14 Bellport Lane
Bellport, NY 11713