GOOD NAKED PRESENTS

Shelter is thrilled to host Good Naked’s group show HOT MESS, an exhibition that tackles the hot mess that is our current state of personal affairs. Using text and image each artist skillfully weaves us through the sticky field that is language and feeling. Compositions and structures bring humor and gravity to existential moments leaving us space to sigh and gulp in familiarity and anticipation.

The title of this exhibition emerged from one of Becky Brown's text paintings.  Stretching and spacing each letter, Brown slows our perception of familiar phrases, expanding the time we spend on ideas sometimes skirted around or passed over.  Jumbled letters and wrapped expressions mix and match to build new contexts and encourage thoughtfulness and pause.

Rachel Domm's meticulous pastel drawings equally slow modes of perception through different means. Her cropping of image and choice of subject recalibrate the way we look at everyday objects and moments of interest.  The surface of a pickle and the hold of hands collecting fruit create both humorous and sensual depictions of otherwise fleeting gestures and textures.

Zebadiah Keneally and Trevor King's works point us closer to absurdities in our own personal reflections.  Their figures attempt feats of grandeur while simultaneously finding themselves dumbfounded by the complexities of simply being.  Symbolic content reigns as both artists include hovering imagery that implies future states - a glove floating in the air, a bird sitting on the nape of one's neck.

Paula Stuttman's ecstatic one armed go go dancers rip and writhe across the page as they exhibit joy and fervor.  Her feverish paint application echoes this energetic plea and calls our attention to the desire, hope, exhaustion, and play that often make up this kind of movement/expression.