Shannon Lucy
No Dancing

Cynthia Broan Gallery is pleased to announce Shannon Lucy, No Dancing and Joshua Weintraub, Car Bomb Kills 13, two solo exhibitions of new works by painters addressing the socio-psychological impact of popular imagery and foreign relations.

Shannon Lucy's paintings and works on paper evoke the mementos of faded empires. Her paintings are of penants, flags, sheet music and other souvenirs that might be found in an attic steeped in memories of power and innocence. Contemporary icons and logos are mixed in with the old-fashioned fonts and regalia, creating a continuum of Colonialist mythology. A striped flag in the colors of an imaginary African desert nation bears the Hard Rock logo, and a golden crown of perhaps an Indonesian emperor becomes the backboard of a basketball hoop. Whether she is painting a penant for Team Zimbabwe in zebra hide or the specimen plate for the State Flower of Fila, we feel the power of cultural mythology, of the putting on of the well-intentioned masses to support future histories of error. Lucy's Bad Thoughts series or works on paper are imaginary musical scores which may depict the madness felt by those who know they are being put on. The complex songs of heartbreak and regret run wild within the musical bars, revealing the more psychological and emotional nuances of her mythological empire.

Joshua Weintraub's paintings are based on photographs from the media. They are an attempt to emotionally engage with a series of current events which have been shuffling by in rapid succession. One event replaced another so quickly it was difficult to absorb one before it was replaced by the next. The attempt to engage only withered as the artist became acutely aware of how removed he is from these historic events. The attempt is tertiary: they are paintings of photos of events. These events are mediated to the point of irrelevance.

Also on view is Snake Goes Blind (2003), a three-minute video by artist Liam Everett. The video was shot at night in a city park in Bremen, Germany.

For further information about the exhibition or the gallery, go to www.cynthiabroan.com or call (212) 760 0809.

Image credit: Shannon Lucy, © 2006, for Hatch Show Print, Nashville, TN;
Joshua Weintraub, Car Bomb Kills 13, 2005, acrylic on paper, 38 x 50";
Liam Everett, Snake Goes Blind, 2003, video still