Strange Birds at Figureworks

Figureworks is very pleased to open 2019 with Strange Birds.  This exhibition features artists who have introduced our fine feathered friends into the scope of their work.

Narrative painter Jennifer Delilah finely details her anthropomorphic birds into elaborate and historic environments. Featured are two large oils, one exposing a cock fight in front of the New York Stock Exchange and the other with a pair of bald eagles suspending an exotic tethered bird. She notes, “I’m fascinated by the ways in which people come to revel in dominating others or in being dominated, taking on the role of predator or prey, and the ways in which people come to love their chains.”

Susan Hamburger’s City BIrds is an ongoing project comprised of pigeons, starlings and sparrows inspired by a collection of Meissen porcelain birds at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Here, however, the birds are far more prosaic and created almost entirely from papier-mâché using the New York Times. Representing native, nuisance and invasive species, the work is a metaphor and an homage to the birds we take for granted in our midst.

In the entrance to the gallery, Susan has also created Fish & Fowl, an expansive 14ft. wall installation featuring various birds of New York.

Yuliya Lanina creates alternate realities in her work – ones based on sexuality, fetishism, and identity. All of Lanina’s characters are created from dissembled collaged parts that have been restructured and painted over. These provocative paintings explore and poke fun at our fascination with the dark and animalistic parts of the human psyche.

Father Paul Plante, a Catholic Priest and Maine artist, passed away in 2016 leaving behind a large body of oil pastel paintings, many focused solely on the eyes of birds. These intimate 4 1/2″ x 4 1/2″ oil pastel paintings call to mind the cosmos and the mysteries of life, as well as the spirit of his subjects.

Adding to the above mentioned artists are a variety of extraordinary bird-related works by select artists working in various media, including painting, sculpture, encaustic, stained glass, and mixed media on paper.