KELLY BEEMAN: DISTANT CITIES
Perrotin Paris is pleased to present Distant Cities, Kelly Beeman’s first solo exhibition in France. The exhibition features three new oil paintings and twenty works on paper, including monochromatic ink paintings—a medium she has recently begun exploring.
May 24 - June 29, 2024
Nature is idyllic, and nothing seems to disturb the peace of the languid protagonists. Singing, playing the piano, lying on beds or lush patches of grass, striking a pose on a shopping street, or holding a bouquet of white flowers, these girls inhabit a world of serenity, luxury, and pleasure.
Beeman’s vision is a Platonic ideal, depicting the world not as it is but as it should be. Over time, she began to diminish the emphasis on individuality in her subjects, perceiving them as components of a singular entity. Currently, the only distinguishing features among these figures are their attire, scale—such as the smaller stature of the little girl compared to others—and occasionally, gender, particularly when depicting romantic relationships.
The history of art is full of recurring faces. Beeman’s work recalls the soft, elongated features and intense gaze of the woman who haunted Sandro Botticelli’s paintings. Like Petrarch’s Laure or Dante’s Beatrice, this enigmatic woman, who utterly captivated the painter, embodies the feminine ideal.
The exhibition is titled Distant Cities. Many works contain architectural elements that serve as reassuring and threatening settings for Beeman’s figures. The city is presented as a metaphor for a future that may not necessarily be bright and from which we try to escape despite the apparent calmness of the scenes.
Beeman’s work is defined by its clear lines, which are highly graphic and meticulously arranged. Everything in her universe is in its place; even the flight of birds in the sky seems to follow a precise, preordained path. However, one feels that even a minor disruption could create chaos in this well-oiled machine, creating a sense of both solidity and fragility.
Yet they exude a certain coldness, keeping us at arm’s length. There’s something old-fashioned about them, as though they had been painted in a bygone era—as if a major catastrophe had reshuffled the cards, turning the works into signals from another world. As the artist aptly says, "Sometimes they wish time would stand still."