SJ Fuerst: Gimme Some Sugar

SJ Fuerst: Gimme Some Sugar
2nd May, 2024 – 23th May, 2024
Art Galleries of the Malta Society of Arts
Palazzo de La Salle
219, Republic Street
Valletta

Gimme Some Sugar is a solo exhibition by American figurative painter SJ Fuerst that playfully celebrates candy’s presence in pop culture. The paintings are bright, humorous, and seductive, what better way to represent society’s love affair with sugar? The show is pure joy, but not quite as innocent as the candy coating suggests.

Hosted at the prestigious and historical Malta Society of Arts in Valletta, the exhibition will take place from Thursday 2^nd – Thursday 23^rd May 2024.

The third solo exhibition by American figurative painter SJ Fuerst, Gimme Some Sugar explores the irresistible appeal of sugar and candy, and its immense and complex presence in our society. While its surface image of is one of innocence and fun, this transforms in adulthood to become metaphors for everything adults desire: love, sex, money, drugs, even happiness itself.

Wittily addressing and subverting themes from gender stereotypes to consumer culture to the very concept of art objects, Gimme Some Sugar is thoroughly modern, applying traditional, photorealistic figurative and still life painting to contemporary topics of interest.

SJ’s work is beautiful and funny, and can be found in private collections all over the world. Drawing from fashion, pop art, and contemporary culture, Fuerst’s paintings create a surreal world where the animals are inflatable and the women feel so real you expect them to wink at you. SJ’s work often has a dark undercurrent, but it’s carefully entwined with a playful innocence.

SJ Fuerst: Gimme Some Sugar opens on the 2nd of May, 2024 until 23th of May, 2024 at Art Galleries of the Malta Society of Arts

©2024 SJ Fuerst