Exhibitions

Simard Bilodeau Contemporary is thrilled to present Night Bloom, a new exhibition of paintings by the Los Angeles based artist, Aleah Chapin and her first solo show in the city. Continuing her exploration of the human form and the interplay of abstraction and realism as a vehicle for expressive and emotive communication, the show will feature a group of paintings ranging in size from 5 inches to 12 feet.

Originating from recent personal experiences of grief after the death of a close friend, Night Bloom presents viewers with an installation of paintings that evoke a procession or ritualistic experience. A group of small paintings are scattered on opposing walls, suggesting a meadow and framing a single large triptych, which serves as a kind of centerpiece. Included in the show are two works on paper created in the days immediately following the tragedy, which were the seeds for this exhibition.

The paintings all carry a balance of oppositions: warm and cool, constriction and expansion, flatness and fullness of form. They’re also influenced by Chapin’s interest in the relationship between individual and collective experience, the concept of imperfect bilateral symmetry, and Eckart Tolle’s writings on the ‘first flower’ being both a metaphor and an inspiration for the evolution of human consciousness.

Hands play an important role in this exhibition, as seen in the meadow of paintings leading to the triptych. In each piece, hands come together to create flower-like forms, clearly recognizable before morphing into abstracted petals of blue. Titled sequentially as Night Bloom, these flowers grow out of pools of darkness, yet seem to create their own light, a warmth of sunshine urging them to unfold.

A Breath on Dandelion Seeds, an 8 x 12 foot triptych, pulls its title from a piece of writing by Chapin’s late friend, River Sola. The largest piece in the show, it’s an explosion reminiscent of a flower or flame, yet made of many bodies. Feet press firmly on the base of the canvas, as if to ground the painting, legs curving in towards mirrored, sunken forms that face out from the center. This pelvis of the painting is where pain lives. The constriction is visceral. A tiny seed of light between pointed toes is the beginning of upward movement, an expansion out of a blue tinged night into a biomorphic, communal sunrise.

Transformation is at the heart of this new body of work, both in a painting’s ability to communicate through the transformation of materials, and in the pictorial vision of personal transformation through suffering and loss. “The timing of this exhibition opening in the immediate aftermath of the Los Angeles fires, heartbreakingly fits...” says Chapin. “The loss and grief that my city is experiencing cannot be understated, but the sense of community, kindness and resiliency, shows that even in the darkest night, we can bloom.” Ultimately, this is a show about hope.

Aleah Chapin (b. 1986 Whidbey Island, WA) is a painter whose direct portrayals of the human form have expanded the conversation around western culture’s representations of the body in art. Described by Eric Fischl as “the best and most disturbing painter of flesh alive today,” she has exhibited in solo and group shows throughout the world, including Flowers Gallery (New York, London, Hong Kong), the Belvedere Museum (Vienna), and the National Portrait Gallery (London). Chapin has attended residencies at the Leipzig International Art Program (Germany) and MacDowell (United States). She is a recipient of the Willard L. Metcalf Promising Young Painters Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (New York), the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant (Canada), a Postgraduate Fellowship from the New York Academy of Art, and won the BP Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery (London) in 2012. She holds an MFA from the New York Academy of Art (New York) and a BFA from Cornish College of the Arts (Seattle). Chapin’s work has been published extensively, including New American Paintings, Juxtapoz, Art Maze Magazine, London Sunday Times and the Seattle Times, among others. She is also a subject in the BBC documentary titled “Portrait of an Artist”. Aleah Chapin lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.

Simard Bilodeau is thrilled to present You Too Will Become A Dove On Fire, Emily Wise’s first solo exhibition with the gallery on view from 16 November 2024 to 21 December 2024. In her lush acrylic and flashe canvases, Wise weaves multi-dimensions narratives that explore and interrogate the existence of a sacred feminine space.

In this new body of work, the American artist engages in the practice of surrealist mythmaking, dissolving the boundaries of reality and dream to render a shared emotional topography. This sequential series –like many of Wise’s previous– is accompanied by a poetic premise: a group of tired vending machines fall asleep, collectively dreaming they are women, who are doves, who are becoming fire—burning through the veils of eternity.

Wise’s aptitude for storytelling grounds her work in its own reality, though it is not meant for literal translation. Instead, it reveals possibilities, mirroring the very nature of poetry, which Wise feels is closer to what she seeks to convey in her practice. Rather than telling the viewer where they are, her words gently usher them in, acting as an intermediary that complements the visual experience and leaves space for personal interpretation. Whilst Wise’s paintings are conceived within an allegorical framework, they rebuke linearity. In her own words, she likens the creative process to a dynamic race between her imagination, the supplementary written tale and the painting, where each art form overtakes the other to reveal a narrative world with compelling ambiguity.

Wise implicates herself and her viewers within these vast and complex internal realms using tangible forms; lithe, fragmented female bodies intermingling with swathes of botanicals, comfortable in their natural states, engaging in scenes of intimacy and cherished coexistence. Alluding to the feminine connection to fable that has existed throughout human history, the subjects of Wise’s paintings carry the burdens and bounties of their lore. The act of painting, evolutionary and intuitive by nature, attempts to release these figures from their mythological roles as goddess, heroine and femme fatale. Here, the dove, with its connotations of purity and peace, becomes a metaphor for the female experience, shifting the focus to a collective objective where she exists simply for herself. Alight, the dove represents a state of quiet anger and the burning of these burdens into bliss.

Throughout the exhibition, Wise experiments with varying levels of abstraction to communicate the evolution of emotion and experience as the figures outgrow their psychological surroundings. In this sense, each painting is a portal on a path headed in the same direction. In the piece ‘Reverse Birth’ for example, we’re oriented in a transactional space where invisible forces find form in soft undulations that collage a metaphysical journey back to one’s origin. Here, Wise alludes to a reconnection with the higher feminine or mother figure, and the rediscovery of identity through the cyclical process of rebirth.

The vivid contrast in Wise's paintings, as in ‘It’s Like You Never Had Wings’ creates an almost kaleidoscopic effect, evincing dimensions of overlapping and intersecting shapes and colours that seem to breathe and hum together. There's a thermal quality to her work, as Wise experiences colour on a sound spectrum, with hot pinks and zesty oranges resonating at the highest pitch. As such, each painting feels as though it possesses its own light and soul, radiating an inner energy that invites the viewer to sensorily experience the embedded worlds beyond the surface.

Emily Wise (b.1988) was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland. She received her BFA from the Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, Oregon, where she currently lives and works. In 2023, she was listed by Artsy as Artist to Watch. She has exhibited across Portland at ChefasProjects, Fishbowl Gallery, c3 Initiative and ADX Gallery. She was featured for the first time with DTLA based gallery Simard Bilodeau Contemporary at Future Fair in New York City May 2024.

Alexandre Arrechea: Caribbean Stages

Gabriela Reyna: El Baño

ALEAH CHAPIN: NIGHT BLOOM

Emily Wise: You Too Will Become A Dove On Fire

Current Reflections - Kathryn MacNaughton

FOUNDATIONS ONLINE ART FAIR 2024 featuring Thorbjørn Bechmann and Jingjing Ying

TOI MOI NOUS

LOOKING AWRY - Thorbjørn Bechmann

Foundations, Winter 2024

TRANSLATIONS

SOLSTICE HAZE

WILD ONES

WALKING IN MY OWN STEPS

DESPIEL - ALFREDO ROMERO

RANDOM WALK - CAROLINE DENERVAUD

PERCUSSION DREAMS - EMMA LARSSON

ODD & IMAGINARY

MERGING STREAMS

WILDFLOWERS

THE LIGHT BEHIND THE TREES

THE SPACE BETWEEN YOU AND I

HEADS FULL OF POETRY

SEASONS

INTERACTIONS

MEMORIAS DESPRENDIDAS | Deconstructed Memories - Alfredo Romero

CHINESE ABSTRACTION

ESCAPING

If You Are a Dreamer, Come In

Introspective

Shirzan

The Sanctity of Desire

THE MERRY MAKERS

ON PAPER

VESTIGES OF OUR TIMES

We Become What We Behold

SHADES OF REALITY

CRYSTALS

PALIMPSEST - A Solo Exhibition of Juan Carlos Muñoz Hernandez

Black Imaginary To Counter Hegemony (B.I.T.C.H.)