Tell Me When We See Each Other Again

cadet capela is pleased to present Tell Me When We See Each Other Again, the firstsolo exhibition in France by American artist Sophie Larrimore.

This new exhibition is a continuation of Larrimore’s painting practice which utilizesthe parameters of traditional genres - animal, nude, landscape - as tools to engage inthe formal dialog of painting:

For me, painting is primarily concerned with composition and form. The subject, though important and with its own history, is really a starting point, a way of beginning. Ultimately, painting is just that, painting. As the forms in my work have become more stylized, my interest has shifted to the shapes created, the color relationships, the surface, the edges, and the tension between flat and illusionistic space. The forms of the dogs are a way to begin; I usually have an idea of what the final work will be, but it is always changing as I move through it.

Inspired by medieval illuminations and Renaissance paintings, the artist pays remarkable attention to details, whether it be pebble paths, delicately hatched trees, or plants. Her characters, seemingly returning to a primary state in connection with nature, are statue-like in landscapes with complex patterns.

In the manner of devotional paintings, Larrimore’s paintings and drawings are presented as architectural objects. The hand-carved frames create a space around the painting, allowing it to exist: The frames are not an extension of the work but a container. They indicate the devotional nature of the painting and focus the viewer’s attention on it.

The artist works directly with acrylic on raw linen, giving Larrimore’s works a fossilized quality, with forms embedded directly in the very fbers of the canvas.

The ambiguous title of the exhibition, Tell Me When We See Each Other Again, evokes both a question and a promise, placing her works in a fuctuating temporality. Are we witnessing a past age? A future dream? Larrimore wants to leave the doubt lingering and invites us to enter a universe where everything is uncertain.

Sophie Larrimore (born in Annapolis, MD in 1980) received her BFA from The Cooper Union in 2004. She has participated in numerous exhibitions, including a two-person show in the spring of 2021 at Situations, New York, and group shows (2021) at Jack Hanley, New York, Venus Over Manhattan, New York, and The Pit, Los Angeles.