AMY CUTLER: TRUCE

Perrotin Shanghai is pleased to present Truce, Amy Cutler’s latest show.

November 6 – December 21, 2024

At first glance, Cutler’s drawings and paintings seem to depict a world far removed from our own. A retreat from the rational into realms of mysticism, religion, and the supernatural gives rise to scenes where heads open to reveal armies of frogs and women find themselves buried in turtles. Yet, despite these strange and surreal transformations, there is a curious reconfiguration at work. At its core, Cutler’s vision remains tethered to the human experience, situating the self within an elemental landscape that feels both timeless and oddly familiar.

Beyond these surreal geographies, Cutler’s work weaves together elements of craftsmanship—a wide array of textiles, braided hair, flowers, and vegetation. These materials stretch across time, linking an agrarian past to the industrial present, methodically tracing the shifts brought by evolving technology.

The exhibition in Shanghai borrows its title from the painting Truce, in which two women, having set aside their convictions—along with their heads—join forces to care for a tortoise suspended by ropes between them. Below, there’s a quiet sense of volatility: fireworks stacked in buckets, split miniature houses, hinting at an imminent instability in the background. Braids, coiling through the composition and throughout Cutler’s broader work, serve as markers of time and lineage.

As Cutler herself has noted, “There’s a common saying about having butterflies in your stomach when you’re nervous, but for me, it feels more like frogs jumping around inside… And the lake doesn’t just mirror the world; something is emerging from beneath the surface.” Her figures, both many-faced and faceless, balance slowly, suspended between past and present, in their newfound truce.