Dirtypower

About the Exhibition

Caitlin Cherry draws as much from the traditions of art history as from the trailblazing cultural theory authored in this technology-saturated age. A solo exhibition of newly commissioned artworks, Dirtypower merges two of the artist’s recent interests: imagery warped by Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) monitor technology, and the representation of black female bodies in institutions and media. The portrait paintings on view are rendered in kaleidoscopic color palettes, and some are displayed custom-designed wall-mounts, to look like malfunctioning flat-screen televisions. To reposition the outmoded idea of painting as a window to literal and figurative worlds, each artwork instead proposes painting as a screen—an addictively interactive and luminous surface that is central to everyday life while also mediating it. The painted figures, which Cherry uses to challenge presumptions about perception, authenticity, and beauty, visually communicate how entangled the individual, and their image-avatar, is with society and technology.

Dirtypower is organized by Jamilee Lacy, PCG’s Director and Chief Curator.