Alchemy Gallery opened its doors just three months ago in New York’s Lower East Side neighborhood, and has garnered an impressive community of art patrons and lovers. For its second exhibition titled “Fem,” gallery curator Jess de la Hunty tapped three emerging artists: Christina Allan, Heather Benjamin and Kelly Shami. whose work presented three different facets of what art from the lens of women looks like.
Commenting on the exhibit in press, de la Hunty said, “Each of these artists have developed their own fierce and specific aesthetic that I think really challenges any traditional notion of what “female painters” have ever been. They are each determined, both in their artistic prowess and in the savviness with which they conduct their business; they are utterly dedicated to their practice and the creation of something that is uniquely their own.”
Check out the presentation below.
Rooted in her understanding of the human struggle, Christina Allan uses spray paint to create reaper-like figures whose attachment to the material, serves as a bright reminder of our fleeting existence.
New York-based Heather Benjamin weaves her printmaking background to create highly detailed representations of the mystical feminine. With her work Benjamin aims to release traditional imagery of the female archetype with figurative paintings that challenge the notion of strength and beauty.
New Jersey-born Kelly Shami expresses the feminine through the lens of an Arab woman born in an immigrant family of jewelers. Her oil paintings center the natural source and fragility of flowers, contrasted with the edgy metal piercings of her adolescence and her affinity for pop culture.
