Lisbeth Thalberg
Germantown, NY – The Alexander Gray Associates in Germantown is thrilled to announce the opening of a captivating new exhibition by Alannah Farrell titled “Erect.” The showcase, featuring Farrell’s recent works on paper, will open to the public this Saturday, September 21, with an opening reception scheduled from 3:00 to 6:00 PM. This exhibition will be on view until December 21, 2024.
The title of the exhibition, “Erect,” is a personal homage to Emily Brontë, who once penned the evocative line: “Having levelled my palace, don’t erect a hovel and admire your own charity …” For Farrell, this quote serves as a poignant reference point, setting the thematic tone for the pieces on display.
Drawing inspiration from the haunting visuals of George Tooker and Hans Bellmer, Farrell’s new works offer intimate, near-cinematic scenes imbued with a palpable sense of psychodrama. A recurring motif in these portraits, tableaus, and cityscapes is the presence of towering high-rises. These architectural giants, which perpetually rise and fall to reshape the urban skyline, symbolize volatility and transformation, acting as metaphors for the human form.
Farrell’s artistry collapses the boundary between interior and exterior worlds, drawing significant parallels between urban transformation and the evolving identities within queer and trans communities. Their compositions are deeply informed by queer theoretical frameworks spanning from the 1990s to the present, emphasizing how identity is indelibly shaped by both location and experience. This is particularly evident in works like “Estate” (2024), where a mirrored silhouette of the artist overlays a nocturnal cityscape, blurring the lines between figure and ground. “Painting might attempt a facsimile of reality,” Farrell notes, “but it always deviates and becomes something else.”
The new compositions encapsulate feelings of isolation and instability while simultaneously exploring the quest for collectivism. As Farrell articulates, “What does the journey of shattering and shedding indoctrinated false binaries and oppressive systems look like in this moment? How is that search for liberation contained, built, and destroyed in our current structures?” For Farrell, painting is an exploratory process, “a way of searching, trying to survive, peeling back layers of bullshit, shedding skins… Often, I feel I’m only just getting started. That’s when it gets exciting.”
Born in Kingston, NY, in 1988, Alannah Farrell is a queer painter currently residing and working in New York City. Farrell received their BFA from The Cooper Union in New York. Their work has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions at notable venues including Anat Egbi in Los Angeles and New York, Green Family Art Foundation in Dallas, and Lyles and King in New York. Their artwork is also part of the permanent collection at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Miami, FL. Farrell is represented by Anat Egbi in Los Angeles.
