Lise Soskolne: The Work
THE WORK
Lise Soskolne
MAY 17—JULY 1, 2019
An Exhibition in Two Chapters
Chapter 1: May 17—June 21
Chapter 2: June 24—July 11
For most of the past two decades, Lise Soskolne’s painting practice has been undertaken without a viewing public and concurrent with her work as an administrator and labor organizer in New York’s nonprofit arts sector. The Work, her first public solo exhibition in New York since 2001, brings together more than thirty paintings made between 1999 and 2016. Most have never before been shown or have not been on view since their initial presentation.
Unfolding in two chapters, The Work’s first installment triangulates themes related to time, labor, and gender in a series of paintings that alternate between the faithful application of paint with brushes and the use of tools intended to obliterate the painter’s mark. Documenting the stylistic range of Soskolne’s earlier work and tendency to engage her subjects with sardonic humor, chapter one sets the stage for Bethenny, the exhibition’s second chapter. In a tightly focused series of fourteen densely worked paintings, Bethenny pictures a sedated moon surrounded by his attendant hallucinations and doubles as a portrait of the distinctly American capacity for self-delusion.
Born in Toronto, Canada, in 1971, Lise Soskolne has lived and worked in New York since the late 1990s. She is a co-founder of Working Artists and the Greater Economy (W.A.G.E.) and has been its core organizer since 2012.
A free illustrated booklet with texts by Lise Soskolne and curator Alaina Claire Feldman has been produced as part of The Work. You can download a copy here: The Work
The Work has been curated by Alaina Claire Feldman, the director of the Mishkin Gallery. Baruch College and the George and Mildred Weissman School of Arts and Sciences generously provide support for this exhibition.
Lise Soskolne, The Work: Chapter 2, Installation views at the Mishkin Gallery, 2019. Photography by Isabel Asha Penzlien.
Lise Soskolne, The Work: Chapter 1, Installation views at the Mishkin Gallery, 2019. Photography by Julian Tineo.