Isabel Sullivan Gallery is pleased to announce I Was Carefree, Green and Golden, a forthcoming group show on view from November 14th – December 31st. The exhibition brings together the work of three female painters, Antonia Caicedo Holguín (b. 1997, Colombia), Joana Galego (b. 1994, Portugal), and Stephanie Monteith (b. 1973, Australia), and marks the first occasion some of the artist’s work will be shown in the United States. An opening reception will be held on November 14th, from 6-8pm at 39 Lispenard Street.
The three artists are linked by a joint interest in and unique approach to the use of color in painting. Each artist culls ideas and images from personal experience, along with the verdant landscapes of their diverse home countries. Overlapping themes include imagination, place and memory, love and connection, everyday life and the natural world. The title of the show is drawn from the Dylan Thomas poem “Fern Hill,” a temporal and evocative piece of writing that depicts the pastoral and idyllic scenes of the Welsh countryside, where the writer spent his youth. Collectively this exhibition invites the viewer to explore their own history and identity, and the spaces we create and inhabit – both past and present, interior and exterior, and empirical and mystical.
Antonia Caicedo Holguín is deeply influenced by her hometown of Cali, Colombia, from the people who inhabit the city to the vibrant salsa music and dance culture of the region. Caicedo Holguín’s exuberant paintings are charged with a kinetic and soulful energy that pulls us into compelling scenes of song, dance and kinship. “A key component of my practice is the playfulness of writing narratives. The characters I build hold the charm, depth, and presence of literary protagonists.” She works with a variety of materials, including oil paint and unconventional materials like coffee grounds, coffee dyes, natural Latin American pigments, and found objects. Her work focuses on common settings and everyday actions, with a recurring emphasis on human figures.
Central themes in the romantic paintings of Joana Galego are memory, moments of gathering, and expressions of connection. Galego combines observational drawing, imagination and drawing from reference photos, often starting from a tender personal experience. “Surprise and mystery are important to me. I look for images that deeply engage the senses, mind, and, for lack of a better word, the spirit. I’m particularly interested in making work that asks questions rather than making statements.” Galego grew up in Cascais, Portugal, between the Sintra Mountains and the Atlantic Ocean, a coastal town whose biodiversity profoundly influenced her imagery and imagination. Galego created a monumental work for this exhibition spanning 10 feet in length, titled Our Mother’s Cloak, a loose reference to Piero della Francesca’s Madonna of Mercy. Our Mother’s Cloak depicts three childlike figures hiding under a cloak, a powerful symbol of protection, concealment, or escape. She probes viewers to question the nature of innocence, purity, and care, in compositions that combine the spiritual and physical realms.
Stephanie Monteith observes objects, interior spaces, landscapes, people, and animals, and their interactions with one another. She is interested in the wonder and interconnectedness of all life. The paintings in the exhibition are from her Suburban Garden Series, a series depicting her lush garden on the outskirts of Sydney, Australia. She completes her radiant canvases en plein air. “In the mornings the sun comes into the garden and creates color spaces which I observe. I see differences in tone, light and atmosphere changing all of the time and I respond with paint.” The artist originally set about making a garden that would be interesting to paint. She selected and arranged native Australian plants chosen for their color and texture, amongst some already established vegetation. Having explored this subject from 2018-2022, Monteith created four new garden paintings in 2024 for this exhibition that capture natural transformation and the mood of a place over time.
