Triple Canopy is pleased to announce Psychic Portraits by Sadie Benning, a new series of works created on the occasion of the magazine’s 2016 benefit, which honors artist, writer, curator Julie Ault.
For Psychic Portraits, Benning created six unique works based on artists and friends held in common with Ault. Benning has in recent years explored the relationship between painting and sculpture, but in Psychic Portraits he deepens the engagement with photographic and filmic media that characterizes his earlier works. Yet Benning’s handling of materials in Psychic Portraits borrows equally from all these art forms, combining materials and styles that do not conventionally merge. Each portrait features a dominant image that Benning disrupts by embedding digital snapshots, reproductions of found photographs, and other pictures onto its surface. The resulting construction is seemingly bound together by irregularities, complicating the viewer’s ability to make easy associations, especially concerning popular representations of gender and sexuality. With Psychic Portraits, Benning challenges stylistic norms and proves the infinite malleability of transitional identities and artistic genres alike.
Benning’s work is held in many museum collections and was recently included in “Greater New York,” MoMA PS1; “Painting 2.0: Expression in the Information Age,” Museum Brandhorst, Munich and MuMOK, Vienna; “The Carnegie International,” Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; and “Tell It To My Heart: Collected by Julie Ault,” Kunstmuseum Basel and Artists Space. This fall, Benning mounted solo exhibitions at Kaufmann Repetto, Milan; the Renaissance Society, Chicago; and Air de Paris, Paris.
Special thanks to Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects for its generous support.
Sadie Benning
Psychic Portrait #1, 2016
Aqua resin, acrylic, wood, photographs, and digital image
9" × 6.5"
Signed and dated by the artist
From Psychic Portraits, a series of six works created for the occasion of Triple Canopy’s 2016 benefit
Courtesy of the artist and Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects
Sadie Benning
Psychic Portrait #2, 2016
Aqua resin, acrylic, wood, photographs, and digital image
8.5" × 6.5"
Signed and dated by the artist
From Psychic Portraits, a series of six works created for the occasion of Triple Canopy’s 2016 benefit
Courtesy of the artist and Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects
Sadie Benning
Psychic Portrait #3, 2016
Aqua resin, acrylic, wood, photographs, and digital image
9.5" × 8"
Signed and dated by the artist
From Psychic Portraits, a series of six works created for the occasion of Triple Canopy’s 2016 benefit
Courtesy of the artist and Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects
Sadie Benning
Psychic Portrait #4, 2016
Aqua resin, acrylic, wood, photographs, and digital image
8.5" × 6.5"
Signed and dated by the artist
From Psychic Portraits, a series of six works created for the occasion of Triple Canopy’s 2016 benefit
Courtesy of the artist and Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects
Sadie Benning
Psychic Portrait #5, 2016
Aqua resin, acrylic, wood, photographs, and digital image
19.5" × 15"
Signed and dated by the artist
From Psychic Portraits, a series of six works created for the occasion of Triple Canopy’s 2016 benefit
Courtesy of the artist and Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects
Sadie Benning
Psychic Portrait #6, 2016
Aqua resin, acrylic, wood, photographs, and digital image
15.25" × 12.25"
Signed and dated by the artist
From Psychic Portraits, a series of six works created for the occasion of Triple Canopy’s 2016 benefit
Courtesy of the artist and Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects