Plastic Stars at Tara Downs

Artists: Héloïse Chassepot, Violet Dennison, Ivy Haldeman, Charlotte Houette, Kelsey Isaacs, Pris- cilla Jeong, Hilda Kortei, Evian Wenyi Zhang

Exhibition title: Plastic Stars

Venue: Tara Downs, New York, US

Date: June 23 – July 28, 2023

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artists and Tara Downs, New York

Tara Downs is pleased to present Plastic Stars, a group exhibition broadly surveying the practices of an international set of female-identifying artists. These artists, mostly working in painting, are catalyzed by the structural parameters inherent to the medium – the grid, the picture-window, the canvas itself – and are attuned to their works’ potential afterlives, their potential to generate afterimages. More plainly, they evince, over and over, an acute awareness of the conditions of production and circulation intrinsic to contemporary art today. As such, the works on view bring the external strategies and processes of photography, sculpture, and textile fabrication to bear on the historical trajectory of painting. They buoyantly replicate adolescent forms of patterning and appliqué – resonant with vinyl decals, school binder adornments, and, indeed, the plastic stars adhered to the suburban bedroom ceiling – sometimes cannibalizing scraps of past works, or elsewhere rendering the recursive effects of photography in oil and acrylic. Collectively, these exuberant works function en abyme, often constellating correspondences among formalist operations, the mechanics of image production, and the teenage imaginary into an ecstatic affective network.

Exhibition view: Plastic Stars, 2023, Tara Downs, New York. Image courtesy of the artist and Tara Downs, New York. Photo: Phoebe d’Heurle

Héloïse Chassepot, Untitled (dirt, purity), 2023, Acrylic and oil on canvas, 63 × 63 in / 160 × 160 cm. Image courtesy of the artist and Tara Downs, New York. Photo: Fabian Landewee

Exhibition view: Plastic Stars, 2023, Tara Downs, New York. Image courtesy of the artist and Tara Downs, New York. Photo: Phoebe d’Heurle

Charlotte Houette, Never Never, 2023, Acrylic on canvas and fibreboard, 47 1/4 × 35 1/2 in / 120 × 90 cm. Image courtesy of the artist and Tara Downs, New York

Exhibition view: Plastic Stars, 2023, Tara Downs, New York. Image courtesy of the artist and Tara Downs, New York. Photo: Phoebe d’Heurle

Evian Wenyi Zhang, Baking Flour, 2023, Acrylic on canvas, 75 × 69 3/4 in / 190,5 × 177,2 cm (442 units). Image courtesy of the artist and Tara Downs, New York. Photo: Phoebe d’Heurle

Exhibition view: Plastic Stars, 2023, Tara Downs, New York. Image courtesy of the artist and Tara Downs, New York. Photo: Phoebe d’Heurle

Priscilla Jeong, Interference (Red), 2023, Aluminum, wood, acrylic, foam, polyurethane, vinyl, craftboard, thermoplastic, 12 × 132 × 4 in / 30,5 × 335,3 × 10,2 cm. Image courtesy of the artist and Tara Downs, New York. Photo: Phoebe d’Heurle

Kelsey Isaacs, pinkXsilver Large, 2023, Oil on linen, 45 × 58 in / 114,3 × 147,3 cm. Image courtesy of the artist and Tara Downs, New York. Photo: Phoebe d’Heurle

Exhibition view: Plastic Stars, 2023, Tara Downs, New York. Image courtesy of the artist and Tara Downs, New York. Photo: Phoebe d’Heurle

Ivy Haldeman, Double Figure, Back to Back, Head Tilts Left, Hand Along Thigh, 2023, Acrylic on canvas, 83 1/2 × 57 1/2 in / 212 × 146 cm. Image courtesy of the artist and Tara Downs, New York. Photo: Phoebe d’Heurle

Exhibition view: Plastic Stars, 2023, Tara Downs, New York. Image courtesy of the artist and Tara Downs, New York. Photo: Phoebe d’Heurle

Violet Dennison, Jacob’s Ladder Triptych in Magenta, 2023, Oil on canvas, 60 × 108 in / 152,4 × 274,3 cm. Image courtesy of the artist and Tara Downs, New York. Photo: Phoebe d’Heurle

Exhibition view: Plastic Stars, 2023, Tara Downs, New York. Image courtesy of the artist and Tara Downs, New York. Photo: Phoebe d’Heurle

Evian Wenyi Zhang, Prototype 2, 2021, Acrylic on canvas, 74 3/4 × 204 3/4 in / 190 × 520 cm. Image courtesy of the artist and Tara Downs, New York

Exhibition view: Plastic Stars, 2023, Tara Downs, New York. Image courtesy of the artist and Tara Downs, New York. Photo: Phoebe d’Heurle

Kelsey Isaacs, greenapple Large, 2023, Oil on linen, 45 × 54 in / 114,3 × 137,2 cm. Image courtesy of the artist and Tara Downs, New York. Photo: Phoebe d’Heurle

Exhibition view: Plastic Stars, 2023, Tara Downs, New York. Image courtesy of the artist and Tara Downs, New York. Photo: Phoebe d’Heurle

Charlotte Houette, Baby Horse 3, 2023, Vinyl paint on canvas, cardboard, silkscreen, 39 1/4 × 29 1/2 in / 100 × 75 cm. Image courtesy of the artist and Tara Downs, New York

Exhibition view: Plastic Stars, 2023, Tara Downs, New York. Image courtesy of the artist and Tara Downs, New York. Photo: Phoebe d’Heurle

Hilda Kortei, The grave dance, 2023, Oil on canvas, 63 × 70 3/4 in / 160 × 180 cm. Image courtesy of the artist and Tara Downs, New York. Photo: Ollie Hammick

Priscilla Jeong, DA:EF01 (Rice), 2023, Aluminum, steel, wood, acrylic, polyurethane, pvc, graphite, foam, thermoplastic, magnet, dye 97 × 110 × 58 in / 246,4 × 279,4 × 147,3 cm. Image courtesy of the artist and Tara Downs, New York. Photo: Phoebe d’Heurle

Exhibition view: Plastic Stars, 2023, Tara Downs, New York. Image courtesy of the artist and Tara Downs, New York. Photo: Phoebe d’Heurle

Evian Wenyi Zhang, 101, 2023, Acrylic on canvas, 55 1/2 × 53 1/2 in / 141 × 135,9 cm (247 units). Image courtesy of the artist and Tara Downs, New York. Photo: Phoebe d’Heurle

Exhibition view: Plastic Stars, 2023, Tara Downs, New York. Image courtesy of the artist and Tara Downs, New York. Photo: Phoebe d’Heurle

Hilda Kortei, On the search for more, 2023, Oil on canvas, 39 1/4 × 33 1/2 in / 100 × 85 cm. Image courtesy of the artist and Tara Downs, New York. Photo: Ollie Hammick