Acquavella Galleries in Palm Beach Presents Tangerine A Collaboration with Canada Gallery, New York

Acquavella Galleries is pleased to present Tangerine, a group exhibition of five contemporary artists presented in collaboration with Canada, a New York artist run space, at its Palm Beach location. Tangerine features the work of contemporary artists Katherine Bradford, Elisabeth Kley, Luke Murphy, Tyson Reeder, and Rachel Eulena Williams. Ranging in age from 27-79 years, the exhibition reflects Canada’s unique approach to blending artists of widely-ranging generations and practices.

The exhibition draws its name from the tangerine – both the fruit, the color, and a Johnny Mercer jazz standard, which describes a fictional South American woman who is admired by all. Popularized in the 1942 film The Fleet’s In, the song provided a much needed bit of tropical respite during wartime.

Rachel Eulena Williams’s painterly assemblages unite canvas, rope, bold pigment and other materials into vibrant, playful wall-mounted structures. Made from raw materials in her studio, the work is characterized not only by a focus on texture and material innovation, but also by its sculptural form. Evident in her work Pierced by Sunbeams, 2021, Williams employs the visual and the tactile through the draped and layered fabric, producing a sense of optimism and play.

Elisabeth Kley draws her motifs from ornamentation, architecture and design sources that result in vivid, graphic patterns. On view in Tangerine is Lotus and Water, 2021, a hand-built black and white ceramic vessel alongside a large-scale silk screened “painting” featuring design elements inspired by Japanese temples, Egyptian Design, the Wiener Werkstatte and costumes from the Ballets Russes.

Katherine Bradford is known for rich, washy layers of acrylic, in purples, roses and deep blues. She portrays lighthearted spiritual narratives along with a mysterious beauty. For Tangerine, Branford’s painting takes on a familial, comforting appeal. In Pool Within a Pool, 2021, pastel figures float in a dark blue plane as a figure leaps off the diving board towards the middle of the canvas, seemingly floating above the swimmers in a light blue sky.

Line Through Ladder (Fire Exchange) by Luke Murphy prompts curiosity and delight through a large, red LED panel that seems to have pierced through the floor, lifting a ladder that otherwise would have stood on its own legs. The combined effect is simultaneously ordinary yet enigmatic.

Tyson Reeder is known for creating whimsical cityscapes and interiors through clashing pastel shades, layering forms and figures onto his stylized landscapes which depict everyday vistas. In Faygo and La Croix, Reeder continues to explore his fascination with landscape and color. He presents joyful depictions of a holiday beach.

Contact: Abby Addams