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Peninsula is pleased to present Whit Harris’s inaugural New York City solo exhibition, Best Laid Plans, opening on September 6 from 6-9 PM at 13 Monroe Street, New York, NY. Harris’s most recent paintings further build upon her explorations of the black femme body. In this ongoing series of works, the figures depicted are manifestations of Harris’s own emotional turmoil, formed by being entrenched in a culture of patriarchy, colonialism, and white supremacy.
The subjects of these paintings are trapped in varying Arcadian scenes evocative of the classical, European tradition of landscape painting. However, in Harris’s hands, these environments come to represent society’s unrelenting oppressive systems. The femmes’ bodies are in conflict with their settings—twisted, cramped, and in some cases, segmented into pieces. Grass, clouds, rain, and smoke wrap around their forms, contorting the figures into cartoonishly over-extended poses. The sky, ground, and other natural features poke and prod, crush and entangle. These highly exaggerated figures, sharply contrasting with their settings, delve into the complexities of identity and power.
Her gestural implementation of paint further heightens the agitation and sense of claustrophobia evident within the artworks. Scratches are directly carved into the surfaces, on the skin of the figures, emulating scars and wounds. Stray loose strings of canvas are allowed to cut through and invade the picture plane. Paint is slashed and swept on the artworks in chaotic, brushy swaths. Raw edges and expressive brushwork create a visceral energy, blurring the boundaries between figure and ground. Her works show a contemplation on nature’s harsh, untamed forces and their intersection with human experience, trauma, and the inner psyche—reminiscent of the automatism techniques championed by Surrealist artists such as André Masson.
Yet, despite the all-encompassing tumult that surrounds these femmes, Harris makes sure they possess a type of defiant beauty. Completely unashamed and without inhibitions, they proudly flaunt their nude forms. Styled with immaculate braids and perfectly manicured acrylic nails, the figures display a glamor that rides the line between ancestral and contemporary. They strut, preen, and gesture with the same iconic aplomb seen in Sha’Carri Richardson’s highly documented poses after she crosses the finish line. They dance, play music, sensually pose, and smoke marijuana with nonchalance. Small acts of brash, somewhat cheeky resistance allow for the subjects to establish their humanity within these hostile environments. Joyful transgressions against their rigid surroundings, both big and small, give them agency and enable their survival.
Whit Harris (b. 1985, Brooklyn, NY) is a multi-disciplinary artist working across drawing, painting, and ceramic media. Her works feature figures that stretch, recline, wriggle and contort themselves in exaggerated expressions as they navigate otherworldly environments. The images become metaphors for the artist’s psychological adaptation to unpredictable and hostile environments borne out of anti-black social structures. Harris was awarded a 2024 NYSCA/NYFA Fellowship in Painting. She has exhibited in group exhibitions in New York, Miami, Los Angeles, Seattle and Munich and has had solo exhibitions at New York and Los Angeles galleries. Harris holds an MFA from Hunter College, New York, and works as an adjunct professor at both Brooklyn College and Borough of Manhattan Community College. She lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
13 Monroe Street, New York, NY 10002
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