Polly Shindler – Time Management

Freight + Volume is excited to announce “Time Management”, an exhibition of paintings and sculptural objects by Polly Shindler.

In her first showing at the gallery, the artist presents a series of domestic and interior vistas largely void of human life, along with a group of small portraits. While rendered in a loose, painterly manner evocative of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, Shindler’s depictions of interior spaces nonetheless surge with psychic drama. Riddling and mystifying, they stand as parables of our current times, reflecting loneliness and mourning as well as the unbreakable bonds of human connection. Her series of “selfie” portraits, painted from photos of close friends and family and subsequently posted on Instagram, probes the bounds of this connection, while also suggesting an evolution in Shindler’s practice.

It is difficult to view Shindler’s paintings without inflecting elements of current life, especially at a time when many have recently been quarantined within similar spaces. Compressing the sprawl of life into confined spaces is inherently problematic, a tension channeled in her tableaux of apartments, museums, and other architectural spaces. In this way, these paintings provoke introspection and perhaps offer a cathartic release, allowing the viewer to project the exigencies of their post-outbreak life onto Shindler’s work. Underscoring the physical bounds of our built spaces, Shindler’s interiors often include views of expansive urban and scenic environments, evident in “Office with Yellow Chair” and “Quiet Place with Garden”; in “Twin Loungers”, the interior/exterior divide is further diffused, with signifiers of abstract art, nature, and domestic life commingled.

Notably, many of the works bear references to art history as well as Shindler’s own practice, such as “Yale Art Gallery”, “Old Whitney Breuer”, and “Workplace”; while they invite the viewer into the artist’s practice and pantheon of influences (as in “Red Room” and “Umbrella Stand”, a nod to Matisse), her scenes of vacant museums also query the role of fine art in social life. Her series of small portraits examine this latter aspect more closely, intertwining an artistic “routine” with the close bonds of friendship and family. Their small scale and paper support enhance the casual tenderness of Shindler’s portraiture, and although masked, the faces of her portraits radiate individuality. Interestingly, she includes notes describing her relationship with each subject, forming an expanded family tree accented with personal anecdotes and visual traces of memory. Set against plain, monochrome backgrounds that highlight the contours and features of her subjects, Shindler’s portraits are analogous to her paintings of interior spaces, intensely observational yet spontaneous and open-ended.

Polly Shindler was born in New Haven where she lives and works as a painter/sculptor. She received her M.F.A. in Painting from Pratt Institute in 2011. Since graduating, she has shown throughout the US as well as internationally in Madrid and London.

A full-color, limited edition artist book will be available for purchase at the gallery or online.

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Location:
Freight + Volume
97 Allen St.
10002 New York, NY
United States