Eleanor Harwood Gallery is pleased to present a group show with Tara Daly, Mary Finlayson, Rachel Kaye and Sarah Thibault.
The title “Pure Beauty” refers to the title of the most complete book on John Baldessari, depicted in Mary Finlayson’s mosaic, as well as to the artwork, “Pure Beauty”,1968, by Baldessari.
The four women in this exhibit all share a stunning command of color, and in contrast to Baldassari’s conceptual artwork, they are often focusing on much more experiential and emotional ideas. Their version of “Pure Beauty” is a more modern and connected version of beauty, one responsive to the natural and supernatural (Thibault) world around us.
Tara Daly’s beautifully woven works present a talismanic solution to environmental and societal ills, while Finlayson’s elaborate mosaics are more about memories, home life, and interior spaces. Thibault’s oil paintings are “inspired by painting’s history as well as autobiographical experiences to create works that center the female perspective and prioritize a mystical view of the world.” Rachel Kaye’s works are abstractions, sometimes of foliage, flowers, the natural world, and more recently references to the female body. Kaye’s work feels like deep meditations on form and gesture. The remnant of her hand in the drawings is particularly visceral, while the brush strokes in the oil paintings feel languid and gentle.
The works by these women are in stark contrast to Baldessari’s work, and to the conceptual movement that often merited ideas over aesthetics. These artists all present magnificently delicious renderings in joyous color with a deep imprint of their labor and craft being integral to the pieces.
These works are the art-world equivalent to “New Sincerity” writing. The term describes novels, and writing that give genuine and empathetic treatment to the human condition and concerns. The description of “New Sincerity” posited that this new movement in writing (and by extension art-making) was in contrast to postmodern cynicism and snarky rib-nudging, to an “insider joke” take on humanity. These artists are much more authentic in their thinking than the era of emotional distance and “cleverness”. They are all deeply present in their art-making and thinking, very much at one with the larger natural world around us, and in turn present us with a new version of cleverness, one in tune with the reverberations of climate change, the shift in seasons, a night sky, and the poetry of the every day.
Artist Bios
Tara Daly is a California artist who makes sculptures, paintings and textiles in material driven processes that explore power, collapse and connection. She has exhibited at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the Richmond Arts Center, Museum of Craft and Design, Contemporary Craft Center among other non-profit art centers and galleries nationally. A graduate of the Santa Monica College of Design, Art and Architecture and the San Francisco Art Institute, Tara has been an artist in residence at Anderson Ranch Center for the Arts, Penland School of Crafts, the Santa Fe Art Institute and was a recipient of Pollock-Krasner Foundation Fellowship at the Vermont Studio Center.
Mary Finlayson (b.1982) is a Canadian-born artist living and working in San Francisco, California. Finlayson’s paintings are a celebration of color, pattern, and form which chronicle and celebrate the aesthetics of everyday life.
Her tightly constructed and highly detailed works capture the feeling of these spaces, evoking the memory of place—often a departure from what is real. Her pieces pay homage to the likes of Corita Kent, Henri Matisse, and Stuart Davis by borrowing similar bright palettes, repetitive patterns, and simplified forms.
Finlayson blends her knowledge of painting and printmaking, attributing her style to a background in silkscreen and lithography. She completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Queen’s University in Kingston Ontario, a Graduate Degree in Art Therapy from the Vancouver Art Therapy Institute as well an Arts Education Degree from the University of British Columbia. She completed artist residencies at the Vermont Studio Center as well as OTIS College in LA and recently completed a mural at the Facebook Artist in Residence program in San Francisco, CA. She has created work for Asana, Mohawk, Google, and Anthropologie.
Rachel Kaye lives with her two children and husband, fellow artist, Jay Nelson, in San Francisco, with whom she often collaborates. She earned a BFA from California College of the Arts (CCA) in San Francisco, CA. She has exhibited nationally and internationally in Paris, Tokyo, San Francisco, Oakland, New York, Los Angeles, and Palm Beach. Kaye has completed large-scale murals at Google (Mountain View), Meta (Menlo Park) and the Hook Fish Restaurant (San Francisco). Kaye’s work has been featured in the Huffington Post, Refinery 29, Artsy, SFGate, and East Bay Express.
Sarah Thibault is an artist, writer, and podcast host based in Los Angeles, CA. Thibault is an interdisciplinary artist whose work engages in conversations about the fluid nature of our reality, queer identity, mental health and the metaphysical. She mines her biography to create work that offers a mirror to viewers in their most unseen moments.
Her psychedelic oil paintings are inspired by the landscape of southern California, imagery from meditations and spiritualist traditions in painting to investigate themes of death, renewal, and the mystical power of the natural world.
Thibault is planning for a solo exhibition with Dreamsong Gallery in Minneapolis, MN, as well as a solo booth at Dallas Art Fair in April 2024. Past exhibitions include projects with Jerry Gogosian x Sotheby’s, The Pit and Good Mother Gallery in Los Angeles, Fahrenheit Madrid in Spain, and Casa Lu in Mexico City. Thibault and her work has been featured in W Magazine, Artsy, ArtMaze Magazine, CARLA, The San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Magazine, SFAQ, and The Huffington Post. She has been a Charter Resident of the Minnesota Street Project studios in San Francisco, CA since 2016. Sarah hosts a bi-weekly podcast “The Side Woo” which interviews artists and practitioners about the intersection of mental health and metaphysics.
Previous projects include acting as Co-Director of the Royal NoneSuch Gallery in Oakland, CA, which was named as one of Artsy’s Best Bay Area Artist-Run Spaces, and Co-Director of The Painting Salon, a nomadic lecture series. She holds an MFA from the California College of the Arts, a BFA from San Francisco Art Institute, and a BA from the University of Wisconsin- Madison.
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