Equal Affections

GRIMM is pleased to announce Equal Affections, a group presentation with Katherine Bradford, Jonathan Lyndon Chase, Felix de Clercq, Anthony Cudahy, Ryan Driscoll, Kyle Dunn, Celeste Dupuy-Spencer, Louis Fratino, Lenz Geerk, Jenna Gribbon, Doron Langberg, Justin Liam O’Brien, Michael Stamm and Salman Toor. The exhibition borrows its name from David Leavitt’s acclaimed 1988 novel of the same title. A new essay by Leavitt was published to accompany the presentation.

The body can be a metaphor for many things. It can be an instrument for experiencing the world, or a vessel for meaning and message. Direct references to the self through memoir and autobiography are central themes in current painting. Equal Affections brings together fourteen artists who explore how the self emerges in relation to community and society at large. An inquiry into gender and its representation foregrounds these rich depictions of people and their interior worlds.

Together, these artworks commemorate the look and feel of contemporary life – while some venture into fantasy, others are firmly grounded in physicality. Many can be read as demonstrations of personal identity and this highlights a shift in the way identity is made visible in art, and more broadly in contemporary culture. Similarly, technology as a filter for experiencing others and its influence on the way we present ourselves, are recurrent themes. In each gesture, pose and painted mannerism these artists present a strong argument for the power of integrating the surface and interior of our lives, as an approach to telling one’s own personal history.

Design: Lorenza Brancadoro

Texts: David Leavitt and the participating artists
Editors: Sebastiaan Brandsen, Hannah Reefhuis, Margot Samel
Printed: robstolk^® Amsterdam