Tag: carrie moyer

Carrie Moyer’s ‘Pirate Jenny’ at The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is switching up its contemporary galleries regularly these days in an exciting change from past years.  For the last month, this lush, abstract painting by Brooklyn-based painter, writer and activist Carrie Moyer has enticed mezzanine visitors, celebrating Pride Month and offering up pure visual pleasure.  Titled ‘Pirate Jenny,’ the piece refers to a song in Bertoldt Brecht and Kurt Will’s ‘Three Penny Opera’ about a hotel maid who triumphs over her scornful fellow townspeople, sailing away to happiness.

Carrie Moyer, Pirate Jenny, acrylic, glitter, and graphite on canvas, 2012.

Carrie Moyer at DC Moore Gallery

Colors pop and merge into the background while shapes seem to hover on the surface of Carrie Moyer’s latest paintings at DC Moore.  These tensions – which define Moyer’s practice – are made more provocative in her most recent work by the addition of more representative elements, like the tassel-like floral bells dotting the surface of this painting, ‘Hell’s Bells and Buckets.’   Moyer notes that in some recent work, her palette has ‘downshifted,’ or adopted a chromal sobriety found to either side of the central flow of form in this painting.  Far from creating a subdued painting, however, the effect is to heighten excitement at the shifting forms at center.  (On view in Chelsea through May 1st. Masks and social distancing required.)

Carrie Moyer, Hell’s Bells and Buckets, acrylic and sand on canvas, 66 x 60 inches, 2020.

Carrie Moyer at DC Moore Gallery

Pleasure is the driving factor in Carrie Moyer’s eye-popping new work at DC Moore Gallery in Chelsea.  Here, ‘Jolly Hydra:  Unexplainably Juicy’ suggests the multi-headed hydra of Greek mythology as it encounters blocks and washes of bubble gum-bright color and sensually curving bodily forms.  (On view through March 22nd).

Carrie Moyer, Jolly Hydra: Unexplainably Juicy, acrylic on canvas, 2017.

Carrie Moyer at DC Moore Gallery

“It’s not about being a commodity, it’s about the pleasurable experience of looking,” explained Carrie Moyer to an interviewer recently, elaborating on how her once overtly political art practice has morphed into a subtle advocacy for enjoyment. (At DC Moore Gallery through March 26th).

Carrie Moyer, Candy Cap, acrylic, glitter and Flashe on canvas, 72 x 96 inches, 2016.
Carrie Moyer, Candy Cap, acrylic, glitter and Flashe on canvas, 72 x 96 inches, 2016.