Leidy Churchman “Giraffe”

Matthew Marks Gallery 526 W 22nd St.

[Image: Leidy Churchman "Niki de Saint Phalle! (1)" (2021) Monotype 29⅜ × 22¾ in.]

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Matthew Marks presents Giraffe, an exhibition of twenty-four monotypes by Leidy Churchman in his gallery at 526 West 22nd Street.

A monotype is a unique print made by painting on a hard surface, laying a sheet of paper on top, and running the plate and the paper through a press to transfer the image. Printed from a single application of ink, monotypes have a richness and an immediacy more commonly associated with painting than with printmaking. This immediacy makes monotypes an especially rich field of experimentation for Churchman, who has been making them since 2013.

Churchman is well known for their wide-ranging subject matter, which draws variously from nature, contemporary media, everyday objects, as well as a myriad of cultural signs and symbols. Whether depicting Niki de Saint Phalle’s La femme et L’oiseau fontaine (1967) installed in the courtyard of MoMA PS1, a foot reflexology chart, or a seated giraffe, Churchman conceives of each monotype as part of an interconnected body of work. This encyclopedic diversity of images subverts traditional categories of representation and reflects the richness that constitutes human experience.

In placing strikingly varied images in relationship to each other, the artist is trying to catalyze the feeling of images and thoughts in human consciousness. By giving attention to each image, the artist hopes to encourage what they have described as “an immersion and transformation of the world from an intimate perspective; a richer, rounder view of the moment from within the mind.”

Leidy Churchman (b. 1979) was born in Villanova, Pennsylvania, and lives and works in New York and Maine. Churchman’s work has been included in group exhibitions at numerous museums including MoMA PS1 in New York, Fondazione Prada in Venice, Museum Brandhorst in Munich, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles and last year’s Biennial at the Whitney Museum of American Art. One-person exhibitions include the Kölnischer Kunstverein in Cologne, the Boston University Art Gallery, the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, and the Hessel Museum at CCS Bard in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, which organized a comprehensive exhibition of Churchman’s work in 2019, including more than sixty paintings.