Exhibition
in New York, NY / United States
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- Squeak Carnwath: Goddess of All
Jane Lombard Gallery is pleased to announce “Goddess of All”, Squeak Carnwath’s fourth solo exhibition with the gallery. Squeak Carnwath merges meticulously applied layers of oil paint with text, repeated symbolic iconography, and abstract patterns. The exhibition “Goddess of All” presents Carnwath’s evolving visual language, which recently includes representations of the female form. Her imagery resists singular interpretations, inviting viewers to find meaning through personal experience, context, and cultural background.
Carnwath’s words and phrases are raw, immediate, and unfiltered, offering intimate reflections that speak to the ever-evolving complexities of womanhood. Drawing on imagery of queens, mothers, and mythic goddesses, Carnwath envisions a future grounded in inclusivity and empowerment. The silhouette of an African queen becomes a recurring motif, most visibly seen in the painting “Goddess of All”. Statues appear throughout her work as ghostlike reminders of women’s past roles and the ways in which those narratives could be recast. Symbols recur throughout the paintings, forming a visual chorus in which thrones, crowns, and female archetypes assert a collective claim to power: the future, Carnwath suggests, is the “goddess of all.”
Text is spread across the canvas as freeform thoughts, serving as a space to speak the unspoken. In “Keep (What You Love)”, thick lines of grey are painted over a monologue, so that it is no longer fully legible. These partially obscured inscriptions suggest the necessity of articulating the truths of lived experience. The obscured words in the painting also allude to Carnwath’s archaeological approach to the material itself. Some passages appear eroded or worn, like faded tattoos or bathroom-stall graffiti. She also views artmaking as a haptic, felt process that is beneath words.
The German concept of Umwelt, an organism’s unique perceptual environment, further informs Carnwath’s recent works. In the painting “My Umwelt”, a family-tree motif meditates on matrilineal histories, with her iconographic figures standing in as ancestral presences. In the painting “Goddess of All”, a tree’s branches instead harbor animals, with an image of Earth at its center, expanding the notion of lineage and ancestry beyond the human. Carnwath uses this imagery to underscore the interconnectedness of all living beings.
Across these richly layered paintings, Carnwath creates a resonant, deeply personal vision of womanhood across time. The exhibition “Goddess of All” affirms the artist’s belief in a future shaped by women and the histories they carry forward.
Squeak Carnwath (b. 1947, Pennsylvania) lives and works in Oakland, CA. Carnwath earned an MFA from California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland, CA (1977). Carnwath is Professor Emerita at the University of California, Berkeley. She is a founding member of the Artists’ Legacy Foundation.
Gallery hours Tue-Fri 10 am – 6 pm, Sat 11 am – 6 pm
Exhibition Duration 16 January – 28 February 2026
Location:
Jane Lombard Gallery
58 White Street
10013 New York, NY
United States
