BOOK LAUNCH CONVERSATION

with Bonnie Lucas & Vanessa Thill

Saturday, March 17th, 4:00-6:00pm

BONNIE LUCAS_N IS FOR NICE_6-1.jpg

Please join us to celebrate the book launch of Bonnie Lucas' N is for Nice. The book is designed and published by Pacific in collaboration with the gallery, and in conjunction with Bonnie’s solo exhibition of new works (2016-2018). The book launch and signing will accompany a conversation with Bonnie Lucas and Vanessa Thill. The exhibition is extended through April 1st.

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 "I grew up in Syracuse, in New York, in a time girls were very circumscribed...'sugar and spice and everything nice and that is what little girls are made of.' I had a pink bedroom filled with pretty dolls and lace curtains. I loved this stuff, but I also knew that as a girl and young woman, I was not particularly sugary or nice. In fact, just being sexual and growing up in that environment made me feel completely alien to what a girl was. And, my mom never once talked about things like menstruation or sex. So I was baffled and ashamed but went ahead anyway being the real girl that I was and I turned it all into art. I guess the strange shame and pain that I felt was transformed into images that are beautiful, strange, not nice, complicated, and funny. I think that is what life in general is like. You see, one is told what one should be and do and feel but that is only one part of the story. I kind of knew when I was young that I had a story to tell and I wanted to tell it. I embraced the Feminist Movement in the late 1960’s and felt vindicated and powerful." 

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Bonnie Lucas (b. 1950, Syracuse) is a New York-based artist. She earned her BA in Art History at Wellesley College, and her MFA from Rutgers University. Lucas' work has been exhibited throughout the United States and abroad; recent exhibitions include 99 Cents or Less at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Detroit and a solo exhibition of works from 1980s at JJT New York in 2017. A 40-year survey retrospective of her work opened at Sylvia Wald and Po Kim Gallery, New York, in 2014. Lucas' work has been reviewed in a number of publications including The New York Times, Hyperallergic, Artforum, The New Yorker, ArtSlant, ARTnews, The Village Voice, Womens Wear Daily, Office Magazine, Urban Memory Project, TimeoutArts Magazine, and The East Village Eye.

Vanessa Thill is a writer, curator, and multimedia sculptor. She has contributed critical writing to Artforum, Art in America, and Frieze, among others. Since 2014, she has produced exhibitions, publications, and other projects as Sorry Archive. Her visual work has recently been exhibited in New York at Dispersed Holdings, Bible Gallery, and Nicelle Beauchene, as well as No Place Gallery in Columbus, Ohio. She avidly collects liquid and powdered ingredients of all varieties, creating evaporative compositions on paper that are interlaced with knots or other hardware and coated with resin. Her work seeks out porous relational beings, non-human systems, and energetic flows and leakages. 

Pacific is a New York-based design and publishing studio with a focus on print publications and ephemera.

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 Quote: Lucas Bonnie. β€œBonnie Lucas Interview” livingcontent.online 

Image detail: Good Times, 2016 plaster, purchased objects, oil paint, 9 ΒΌ x 8 inches. Photo: Bridget Casey