May 3 - July 6, 2024
From Inman Gallery:
“The Melancholic Girls Brigade: The Lovers, The Dreamers, and Me offers a portrait of young adulthood exploring the transition between one’s late twenties and early thirties. A meditation on the artist’s own life stage, Pye paints female figures, often alone and content in their own company. Her protagonists exist in rich public spaces –bars, cafes, and other cityscapes– while being absorbed internally, perhaps as melancholic lovers or dreamers as the title suggests. Showcasing both paintings and works on paper, the exhibition holds emotional undertones of navigating breakups, interpersonal relationships, and balancing pragmatism with romanticism.
In many ways, this exhibition is Pye’s most personal to date: astutely self aware yet unhindered by self consciousness. The works on view evoke the artistic production at the close of the nineteenth century, with references to Édouard Manet’s, A Bar at the Folies-Bergère (1882) and Gustav Klimt’s Nuda Veritas (1889). The portraiture of this art historical era, known as the the fin de siècle (“end of century”) poignantly parallels the exhibition’s transitory theme and reflective imagery in a contemporary light.
Alexis Pye (born 1995, Detroit, MI) practice explores the tradition of portraiture to express the Black body outside of its social constructs. Placing her subjects in leisurely, luscious, nature-rich and even fantastical settings, her works evoke playfulness, wonder and Blackness, as well as the joys amidst adversity. Her formal strategies include an integration of mixed media within painting, including embroidery, collage, and punch-stitch needlework. Alexis Pye holds a an BFA in Painting from The University of Houston. She lives and works in Houston, TX.”
Reception: May 3, 2024 | 5–7 pm
3901 Main Street
Houston, 77002 TX
(713) 526-7800
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