OUTSIDE THE WIND FLUTTERED FOR AN INSTANT, THEN REMAINED QUIET
December 20th, 2019 — January 12th, 2020
Opening Reception: Friday, December 20th, 6pm-9pm
131 Chrystie Street, New York, NY 10002
Gallery Hours: by appointment only
SFA Projects is proud to present OUTSIDE THE WIND FLUTTERED FOR AN INSTANT, THEN REMAINED QUIET, a one-person exhibition of large scale, new works by the Australian born, New York based artist, Renee Estée, opening on December 20th, 2019 and on view through January 12th, 2020. This is her first exhibition with the gallery.
In the opening scene of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s short story Eyes of a Blue Dog, the narrator carefully describes the physical space he inhabits. Identifying features of the room are given equal weight as he describes in detail, the woman sharing the space and the furniture that surrounds. The scene is at once physical and intimate, but also incredibly surreal. The complexity of detail initially convinces readers that the room exists in reality, however, as the conversation between the man and the woman progresses, we realize the narrative is taking place inside of a dream, slipping between subconscious and conscious realms.
In OUTSIDE THE WIND FLUTTERED FOR AN INSTANT, THEN REMAINED QUIET (which owes its title to Marquez’s Eyes of a Blue Dog) Estée navigates truth and invention, surveying the subconscious and conscious relationships we have with people and place, and how they warp and entwine. Counterbalancing uneasiness and reverie, her predominantly large-scale figurative paintings plunge viewers into unpredictable worlds of reflections, where nostalgia, otherness, desire, memory, connection, invented-mythology and hauntological themes are examined. Orientating her figures in chromatically vivid, varied environments, Estée navigates both internal and external connections. In the realm of fictive-memoir, her figures become elastic as they move freely between real and imagined worlds. Entangled with allusions of the everyday, personal histories are given new resonances as they are retold and relocated in an environment that converses with past and present and both illusory and tangible contexts.
Renee Estée is a New York based painter, originally from Melbourne (Australia) and a current Hunter MFA Candidate. She graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts with her BFA (First Class Honours) in 2016. Estée was the recipient of the National Gallery of Victoria Women’s Association Award (2016), the John Vickery Scholarship for Painting (2016), the Tolarno Painting Award (2016) and the Stirling Collective Painting Award (2015). In 2017 Estée undertook an art residency at the Fremantle Arts Centre, Perth. She has exhibited nationally and internationally, including five solo shows in Melbourne across 2017-18. She has been included in group shows in both commercial and A.R.I galleries, including Daine Singer Gallery, Rubicon ARI, Seventh Gallery and 205 Hudson Gallery. Her works are held in private collections locally and abroad. OUTSIDE THE WIND FLUTTERED FOR AN INSTANT, THEN REMAINED QUIET at SFA Projects will be her first NYC based solo show.