Eleanor Aldrich - Nancy and the Fire

smoke the moon present Hook, Eye, Mouth: a group show of work by Eleanor Aldrich, Matthan Cowart, Poppy DeltaDawn and Higinio Martinez in the casita gallery. This show brings together four artists working across painting, sculpture and textile to ply the edges of form with an ecstatic gaze. Hook, Eye, Mouth presents work that boomerangs through the surface tension of reference, craft and material inquiry. 

Though their studio practices encompass a vast arena of formal pursuits, the four artists are united by their creative rigor. From punchy, delicate weavings by Poppy DeltaDawn to the layered and hyper-saturated wall sculptures by Matthan Cowart, the work in Hook, Eye, Mouth serves as absurdist scrolls. Each piece deifies its own reference: slogans, discarded daily objects and children’s stories appearing in a flash and then morphing into something new and strange. Through a trove of reference each artist maintains their stylistic integrity; asking questions about what we know and how truth changes upon second glance. This show underscores the way that artists can serve as translators.

The surfaces in Hook, Eye, Mouth share a vibrational quality; be it in oil paint, enamel, caulking, handwoven wool or spray paint the work on view is distinctly alive and in movement. Aldrich re-narrativizes scenes, imagined or real, from Nancy Drew. She uses caulking to create chunky, textured surfaces to render haunting portraits with unclear borders. Martinez’s paintings may be the most tonally subdued in the show, but they underpin the surreal myth-making of the show. Desert creatures and missives are rendered in lush, layered earth tones. 

Through a collage of ephemera and an intimacy with their craft, the work on view arrests the constant churn of material culture. Each artist opens a window through their work, reflecting the outside world while heralding a new mythos. Hook, Eye, Mouth emerges with a glinting eye, full of artifacts for an ancient future.