A gaggle present of Raul de Lara, Shanique Emelife, Sihan Guo, and Tahnee Lonsdale premises artwork as a counterweight to ideological constraint. These 4 artists, whose works draw on their globalized experiences and transcendent aesthetics, problem cultural and political conservatism by explorations of migration, spirituality, and interconnectedness.
Raul de Lara’s luxurious wood houseplant sculptures, “Familia” (all works 2024), “CDMX/ Mexico City,” and “Pending Flowers,” reveal intricate craftsmanship in each carved leaf and stem, and regulate to reply to their atmosphere. The adaptability of those houseplants echo de Lara’s personal journey of being transplanted from Mexico to america, whereas chatting with broader themes of migration, adaptation, and household bonds. Like his wood crops confined to their pots, de Lara stays unable to return to Mexico as a result of his immigration standing, a persistent constraint that shapes each the fabric — the wooden is intentionally cracked — and the metaphorical core of his work.
Shanique Emelife’s work can be deeply rooted in a shared immigrant expertise. Her work heart on her household’s homeland of Nigeria and its otherworldly lore. “Ifee’s Fear” portrays her younger mom standing in a red-earth courtyard of their enclosed village, positioned subsequent to her older sister. “The Door” initially seems to give attention to a easy cement, clay, and corrugated metallic entryway flecked with geckos, as if the door itself had been the topic. However its place reverse “Ifee” hints at deeper that means. Upon nearer inspection, the door reveals the imprecise define of a determine — an ominous presence that displays the “fear” of the work throughout from it. In the meantime, “Absence” and “African Sun” present aerial views of the village and the extreme daylight, suggesting an incorporeal presence that, by their proximity to the opposite works, ties into the threads of foreboding and reminiscence.
Raul De Lara, “CDMX / Mexico City” (2024), walnut, polyx-wax, 60 x 20 x 36 inches (152.4 x 50.8 x 91.4 cm) (copyright the artist; photograph by Dario Lasagni; courtesy the artist and Alexander Berggruen, New York)
Collectivity can be present in Tahnee Lonsdale’s work, which depict a covenant of ethereal, female figures. Rendered in hues of blue and crimson or yellow and orange, these figures evoke both a way of guardianship or an eerie otherworldliness. Lonsdale achieves this impact with lace-thin layers of paint, making a spectral presence. Solely the eyes, palms, and ft of figures are distinct, guiding the viewer’s interpretation of those interconnected beings as arbiters of religion in gender, identification, and the generational cycles of womanhood.
Sihan Guo’s phantasmagorical work additionally cascade with exact but fluid textures, evoking ethereal beings, clouds, and mycorrhizal networks. Drawing inspiration from the textured interaction of Mark Bradford, the layered symbolism of Julie Mehretu, and the vivid, hallucinogenic palettes of up to date artwork, Guo combines translucent washes of pigment with daring, tactile strokes and managed drips, constructing a dynamic rigidity between precision and probability, depth and floor. Impressed by ecological programs and religious phenomena, her work blurs the traces between the pure and the intangible, embodying Freud’s statement that “Our unconscious…behaves as if it were immortal,” and providing a imaginative and prescient of interconnected existence past human and digital constraints.
The works on this exhibition collectively dismantle the boundaries imposed by the slender designation of “immigrant” in america, embracing as an alternative a globalized, interconnected ethos. De Lara’s wood monstera sculptures signify each private and ecological migration, whereas Emelife, Lonsdale, and Guo discover the interaction between human and transcendental varieties, difficult Western religious and cultural binaries. Collectively, these artists supply a dynamic rebuke to the conservative ideologies of their environment, asserting the enduring energy, complexity, and sweetness inherent of their lived experiences and work.
Shanique Emelife,
”The Door” (2024),
oil on wooden panel,
24 x 18 inches (61 x 45.7 cm) (copyright the artist; photograph by Daniel Greer; courtesy the artist and Alexander Berggruen, New York)
Sihan Guo,
”spleens and heartwood, veins and xylems, slithering, bulging, to flee from the stem, rugged and gritty, olive greens, dusty pinks” (2024),
oil on wooden panel,
47 1/4 x 43 1/4 inches (120 x 110 cm) (copyright the artist; photograph by Dario Lasagni; courtesy the artist and Alexander Berggruen, New York)
Tahnee Lonsdale, ”Reminiscences of Nightfall” (2024), oil on canvas, 70 x 55 inches (177.8 x 139.7 cm) (copyright the artist; photograph by Nik Massey; courtesy the artist and Alexander Berggruen, New York)
Raul De Lara, Shanique Emelife, Sihan Guo, Tahnee Lonsdale continues at Alexander Berggruen (1018 Madison Avenue, Ground 3, Higher East Aspect, Manhattan) by January 15, 2025.
