Shaina McCoy: When There’s Nothing Left
20th October, 2024 – 29th November, 2024
Simchowitz
Hill House
Pasadena
CA 91104
Simchowitz is pleased to present When There’s Nothing Left, our second solo exhibition of the Los Angeles-based artist Shaina McCoy, at Hill House in Pasadena, California.
In this new body of work, McCoy (b. 1993, Minneapolis MN) delves into the root system of her family’s archival photographs. A project stewarded by an inter-generational investment in preserving and celebrating family history, of monumental moments and mundane beauty of the everyday, a heart-felt series that holds literal & metaphorical relevance of togetherness.
Her First Love, 2021
Oil on canvas
60h x 40w x 1.50d in
152.40h x 101.60w x 3.81d cm
Image courtesy of Simchowitz
Inspired by her grandfather, the family photographer, McCoy expounds on the art of archiving what her family is able to capture so well—being together. This series, When There’s Nothing Left, channels a re-envisioned take on her family’s most sincere candids with a perspective mirroring her grandfather’s photography.
Tanesha & Shay Shay II, 2024
Oil on canvas
30h x 40w x 1.50d in
76.20h x 101.60w x 3.81d cm
Image courtesy of Simchowitz
Taking many of her own photographs now as well, McCoy distinguishes both contributor and time period by her use of color. The poignancy of the quotidian experience of life is treated with the same care and attention to detail, and McCoy’s featureless faces allude to the possibility that the figures might serve as archetypes of a more universal human experience, one where the viewer can imagine how they might place themselves within the work.
Using familial source imagery as reference allows McCoy to explore the personal accessibly, a central characteristic of her practice. The paintings on view in When There’s Nothing Left depict a series of embraces, between adults and children alike, that could be interpreted in a number of ways–some celebratory, others consoling, each an active gesture made static, further memorializing the importance of human connectivity.
Shay Shay & Drina, 2022
Oil on canvas
60h x 40w x 1.50d in
152.40h x 101.60w x 3.81d cm
Image courtesy of Simchowitz
Fleeting moments, particularly as they pertain to loss, reverberate in this work–the potency of contact between figures, and how they hold each other up, celebrate the relationships we have with those we love, reminding us to honor the time we have and to prioritize the important bonds we share.
Shaina McCoy: When There’s Nothing Left opens on the 20th of October, 2024 until the 29th of November, 2024 at Simchowitz
©2024 Simchowitz
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