I bought this post over from my studio practice four research because I still think Chase’s work is highly relevant to my developing practice.
Chase’s large scale paintings feature queer black curvaceous bodies intertwined and overlapping in a number of intimate positions, they feel very personal and almost private in the way they tell stories of intimacy and relations. At such a grand scale the paintings demand attention. These relations are often played out within ‘abstract interior spaces’ allowing for the human subjects to be the main focus for attention.
‘A certain generative energy between people—the desire to feel one’s physical boundaries melt into another—is perhaps the strongest thread through all of Chase’s work; it’s also one of the aspects of their paintings that drew collector Mera Rubell’s eye. “For me, there’s a lot of action and sensual moments within the canvas,” she says of their paintings. “There’s a communication that is private and loving. Within each painting are humans trying to find each other.”’ (Thackara, Tess. 2018)
Chase is one of the artists I focused my studies on for my extended essay and I don’t regret this one bit, the more I read about their work the more I found myself fascinated by it, I am particularly a fan of their Solo Exhibition titled ‘Big Wash’ at the Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia as there were large sculptures and installation work combined with paintings and all using a running visual theme of some fabric that Chase designed, this show was about the lines between public and private in queer lives and queer bodies.
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