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.
Jun 23 – Jul 28, 2023
Plastic Stars
Héloïse Chassepot, Violet Dennison, Ivy Haldeman, Charlotte Houette, Kelsey Isaacs, Priscilla Jeong, Hilda Kortei, Evian Wenyi Zhang
Héloïse Chassepot (b.1995, Paris, FR) lives and works in London. She completed her studies at Haute école d’art et de design, Geneva, University of Geneva, Switzerland, and gained her MFA from Goldsmiths, University of London, in 2022. Solo exhibitions: Pauline Perplexe, Paris, FR (2023); Tara Downs, New York, US (2022); Lokal-int, Biel, CH (2022); CAN Centre d’Art Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel, FR (2021); one gee in fog, Geneva, CH (2020). Group exhibitions: Tara Downs, New York, US (2023); Pippy Houldsworth, London, UK (2023); The Margulies Collection, Miami, US (2022); ateliers de la ville de Marseille and La traverse, Marseille, FR (2022); French Place, London, UK (2022); Dray Gallery, London, UK (2021); Artgenève, Geneva, CH (2019); villa Emerige, Paris, FR (2018); HIT, Geneva, CH (2018).
Violet Dennison (b.1989, Bridgeport CT) is a sculptor and multimedia artist based in New York. Selected solo exhibitions: “WETWARE,” Jan Kaps, Cologne, DE (2023); “Freak Like Me,” Theta, New York, US (2021); “Chapter Four: Disappointment,” Kunstverein Freiburg, Freiburg, DE (2019); “Tell Me How To Feel,” Kunsthalle Stavanger, Stavanger, DE (2019); “Transcend,” Jan Kaps, Cologne, DE (2017); “O Earth, O Earth, Return !,” Allen & Eldridge, New York, US (2015); “Replicant,” Jan Kaps, Cologne, DE (2014); Selected Group Exhibitions: “Plastic Stars,” Tara Downs, New York, US (2023); “In Practice: Literally means collapse,” SculptureCenter, New York, US (2022); “The Grid and the Curve,” JTT, New York, US (2022); “So many Stars,” Stars, Los Angeles, US (2021); “Some of the Hole,” Simian, Copenhagen, DK (2020); “Weather Report,” The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Connecticut, US (2019); “Triennial: Songs for Sabotage,” New Museum, New York, US (2018); "Dinner that Night (organized by Weston Lowe)," Bureau, New York, US (2018); “Of Fauna and Flora,” Tomorrow Gallery, New York, US (2016); To Do as One Would, David Zwirner, New York (2014).
Ivy Haldeman (b.1985, Aurora, CO; lives and works in New York) gained her BFA from The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in 2008. Selected solo presentations: Tara Downs, New York, US (2024) (forthcoming); Yuz Museum, Shanghai, CN (2022); Tara Downs, New York, US (2021); Francois Ghebaly Gallery, Los Angeles, US (2020); Capsule, Shanghai, CN (2019). Selected group exhibitions: Tara Downs, New York, US (2023); The Margulies Collection, Miami, US (2022); Perrotin, Paris, FR (2022); Petzel Gallery, New York, US (2020); Hauser & Wirth, New York, US (2019); Fredericks & Freiser, New York, US (2019); Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem, NL (2018); Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, Hancock, US (2018); Reyes Projects, Birmingham, US (2018); Arsenal Contemporary, New York, US (2018); and Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York, US (2017). Haldeman’s work is included in significant public and private collections internationally including the Dallas Museum of Art, Denver Museum of Art, ICA Miami, Yuz Museum, and X Museum, among numerous others.
Charlotte Houette (b.1983, France) is a contemporary artist based in Paris. She has studied at Beaux-arts in Paris and at Art Center in Pasadena. Houette’s solo exhibitions include: “Unbirthday,” High Art, Arles, FR (2023); “Baby Horse,” Cocotte, Treignac, FR (2021); “Captain D. Case Fog,” Treignac Project, Treignac, FR (2020); Group Exhibitions include: “Plastic Stars,” Tara Downs, New York, US (2023); “Portals,” Galerie Allen, Paris, FR (2022); "Sous le velour noir des Paupieres," Frac Poitou-Charentes, FR (2022); “Elephant’s Leg,” Tonus, FR (2022) “Other people’s clothing,” Les Bains Douches, Alencon, FR (2022); "Studio Of the South," LUMA, Arles, FR (2021); “Paradis,” Claude Balls, Marseille, FR (2021); “Your Friends and Neighbors,” High Art, Paris, FR (2020); “Desk Set at the Theater,” CAC, Brétigny, FR (2018).
Kelsey Isaacs (b.1994, Los Angeles, CA) lives and works in New York City. The artist received a BFA in painting from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2016. Selected solo exhibitions: Clima, Milan, IT (2024) (forthcoming); Theta, New York, US (2023) (forthcoming); “Ancient Gloss,” Chapter NY, New York, US (2022). Selected group exhibitions: "Plastic Stars," Tara Downs, New York, US (2023); “On Failure,” Soft Opening, London, UK (2023); Bungalow Earth, New York, US (2022); “Small Paintings,” Venus Over Manhattan, New York, US (2022); “New York Chain Suitcase Brussels Show,” 8 Track Studio, Brussels, BE (2022); “Apple in the Dark,” Harkawik, New York, US (2022); King’s Leap, New York, US (2021); and “Bred To Death,” 300 South Mission, Los Angeles, US (2019).
Priscilla Jeong (b.1990 in Bryan, US) lives and works in New York. Jeong earned an MFA from Columbia University in 2021. She is a recipient of the 2021 Andrew Fisher Fellowship and the Hayman Visual Arts Gift. Selected solo exhibitions include: Tara Downs, New York, US (2023) (forthcoming); Ryan Lee Gallery, New York, US (2019); and Interstate Projects, New York, US (2016). Jeong has also participated in a number of recent group exhibitions, including: Tara Downs, New York, US (2023) (forthcoming); Simone Subal Gallery, New York, US (2022); 2022 AHL-T&W Foundation Contemporary Visual Art Award Winners Exhibition, AHL Foundation, Inc., New York, US (2022); Tara Downs, New York, US (2022); Colnaghi, New York, US (2022); On Ground Gallery, Seoul, KR (2020); Columbia University, New York, US (2019); Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, US (2018); and Interstate Projects, New York, US (2015).
Hilda Kortei (b.1994, UK) is an artist based in London. Kortei received her BA with Honors in Graphic Design from the Arts University of Bournemouth in 2015 and is pursuing a MA in Painting at Royal College of Art. Solo exhibition: “Waitless Beyond Blue,” Cob Gallery, London, UK (2021). Selected group exhibitions include: "Plastic Stars," Tara Downs, New York, US (2023); “Undivided divinity,” Dalston Eastern Curve Garden, London, UK (2020); “Your space or mine,” The Molasses Gallery, London, UK (2020); “Open Studios,” Brixton, London, UK (2019); “Colour in Practice,” The Slade School of Fine Art, London, UK, (2019); “Looking Glass Collective: Belongingness,” Das Giftraum, Berlin, DE (2017); “990 Days,” The Arts University Bournemouth, Bournemouth, UK (2015); “Regeneration,” The BRIT School of Performing Arts, & Technology, London, UK (2012); “Myth, Legend, Folklore,” The Horniman Museum, London, UK (2011); “‘First’ Exhibition, ”The Rag Factory, Shoreditch, London, UK (2010).
Evian Wenyi Zhang (b.2000, Shanghai) lives and works in Shanghai and New York. She is currently pursuing a BA in Art History at New York University. Solo exhibitions include: Chris Sharp Gallery, Los Angeles, US (2024) (forthcoming); “Flight Girls, skeleton and vampire bug,” Lulu by X Museum, Mexico City, MX (2022). Selected Group Exhibitions include: “Plastic Stars,” Tara Downs, New York, US (2023); Public Gallery, London, UK (2023) (forthcoming); Beijing Biennial, Beijing, CN; “We Borrow Dreams from Others, Like Debt,” MadeIn Art Center, Shanghai, CN (2022); “USB Multi-port Linking Exhibition,” MadeIn Gallery x In The Park store, Shanghai, CN (2021); Her works are included in institutional collections including How Art Museum, Shanghai, CN; M Woods Collection, Beijing, CN; and X Museum, Beijing, CN.