Haley Josephs at Jack Barrett

Artist: Haley Josephs

Exhibition title: Paintings and Drawings for Childhood’s End

Venue: Jack Barrett, New York, US

Date: March 1 – April 12, 2020

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Jack Barrett, New York

Jack Barrett is pleased to present Paintings and Drawings for Childhood’s End, Haley Josephs’ second solo show with the gallery. As the title suggests, the show features a new body of work, presented in both mediums—a first for the artist. As the title also suggests, the works are both celebratory and inauspicious.

Paintings and Drawings for Childhood’s End consists of three paintings and several framed drawings placed on freshly painted, pink walls. The artist has hand-painted the gallery walls using sanitary pads and two hues of pink paint. The circular application of paint creates an ethereal, cloud-like landscape reminiscent of the womb.

Paintings and Drawings Childhood’s End marks a departure from innocence and a transition to maturity; a stage of life that is both lamented and celebrated. Tragedy cast a shadow over Josephs’ own childhood, which followed in the wake of the loss of her older sister. The work in this show is a celebration, it honors childhood’s end, as well as the beauty and nostalgia present in every ending as it transforms into a new beginning.

The worlds depicted in Josephs’ new paintings and drawings present dream-like realities. While the figures in past works have often been situated in rural, naturalistic settings, the figures in Josephs’ new works take a more surrealist turn, floating or doubled in florally-adorned, imagined worlds. The doubled figures in these works could represent a mirroring of worlds that exist simultaneously (“as above, so below”); they could be interpreted as one person or two beings, interchangeable. The painting One and Many Are the Same, and its precursor, the drawing Hand on the Grindstone, Heart on the Flower, Eye on the Light, show two bodies, mirrored. The angel or uterine form in these works creates an entry point for the figures and the viewer—a passage into womanhood, into death, into transformation. The detailed flowers present throughout these new works are yet another symbol of fertility and the essential change undergone by these young women at Childhood’s End.