New Works by Deedee Cheriel and Louise Bonnet

DEEDEE CHERIEL & LOUISE BONNET

OPENING RECEPTION:
SATURDAY, MAY 17, 8PM – 11PM

ON EXHIBITION:
MAY 17 – JUNE 13, 2008

For more information please visit subliminalprojects.com

Deedee Cheriel creates visual narratives that explore our personal attempts to connect to the world and each other. Cheriel’s aesthetic is a satirical, yet touching illustration of how relationships between humans, animals, and nature are episodes of both compassion and discomfort. Her work features animal/human hybrids rendered in bright, bold colors who engage, often sexually, with each other and the larger natural environment. Elements drawn from the natural and urban landscapes are combined with pop culture to suggest the ability to find commonalities between ourselves and our surroundings, inevitably validating our greater humanity. Her materials flow from a myriad of techniques: haphazard drips, bold-gestured marks, quirky patterns, fragile expressions, and lustful, yet delicate lines. Cheriel’s work references outsider and folk art, East Indian temple imagery, DIY culture, punk music, and the Pacific Northwest natural environment, bringing together these various influences to develop a style that is truly her own.

Louise Bonnet is known for her illustrative aesthetic, which has been described as a “whimsical” blend of “hippieish style with punk iconography”. Coming from a graphic design background, Bonnet uses pen and ink to create a palette that is flat and concise, yet engaging. Bonnet, who admittedly does not like open displays of emotion, creates characters void of expression. Her images feature a sea of people with blank expressions, drawn at different angles to achieve a beautiful visual pattern that attests to Bonnet’s graphic design background. These characters, often uniform in appearance, remain anonymous from each other and the viewer. For this exhibition, Bonnet expands on this theme of interaction and isolation by creating portraits based on characters from the moving image. Although the characters in these portraits remain expressionless, they obscure the notion of the cinematic gaze. For this series, Bonnet has moved away from black and white in favor of creating planes of color, achieved through the use of gouache on paper.