Exhibition

The Listening World
Bianca Nemelc and Caris Reid
April 20, 2024 – May 29, 2024

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Louis Buhl & Co. is pleased to present a two-person exhibition with painters Bianca Nemelc and Caris Reid, titled The Listening World and opening on April 20, 2024. Featuring new paintings, the exhibition is the gallery’s first collaboration with Nemelc and Reid. 

The Listening World presents a conversation between two artists who draw from personal experience and observation to contemplate the interconnectedness of the mind, body and universe. Influenced by her interest in Tarot, queer ecology and mysticism, Reid's paintings—spiritual and contemplative—evoke a nocturnal atmosphere that is both dreamy and enigmatic. Alluding to the subconscious and divine qualities of the natural world, she deploys symmetry and repetition throughout her compositions to create a hypnotic effect that transforms the familiar. This intention mirrors Reid’s admitted tendency to “think magically when interpreting things [she] encounters on a daily basis.” 

Equally whimsical and soothing, Nemelc’s depictions of the natural world are imagined visions that draw from her relationship to nature growing up in the urban city landscape of New York, as well as explorations of her family’s homelands—the Caribbean, South America and Indonesia. Complementing Reid’s paintings, Nemelc’s are set in the daytime, evident through the clear blue skies and hints of a bright yellow sun. Female forms subtly and seamlessly bend and mold into the landscape, anatomically difficult to differentiate from the hills and trees at first glance, prompting a consideration of the possibilities for brown bodies and the land to coexist and find comfort in one another. In creating space to see oneself in the birds, in the soil and in the cosmos, Nemelc offers the audience a sense of communion, or a “moment to realize the light is on and you are not alone,” as she explains it. Nemelc’s choice to present the body in its bare state, and often in modes of repose, evokes intended feelings of freedom and tranquility, both of which Reid simultaneously channels through the introspective approach she takes to her work. 

Reid and Nemelc share similar strategies in their modes of storytelling, the featured bodies of work optically linked through their graphic sensibilities and saturated hues. By imbuing symbols from the physical world to bridge the metaphysical the artists offer the viewer simple access points to ponder complex topics. Reid and Nemelc’s shared intention is not to be dogmatic in their messaging, but to create spaces for introspection, reflection, memory and association—phenomena that the artists note are too often resisted in our society. To this end, the pair’s shared depiction of flora and birds rather than humans as protagonists for this particular exhibition stems from the organisms’ universal appeal. Within the context of the paintings, these subjects serve as catalysts for empathy and engagement, steering the viewer away from the external, divisive distractions of reality, and thus working as vehicles for accessing and celebrating safe spaces. 

The Listening World with Bianca Nemelc and Caris Reid is on view through May 29, 2024 at Louis Buhl & Co.

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