Gina Litherland The Reason for the Unreason

Press Release

Opening reception at the gallery Friday, May 17, 2013, from 5:00–8:00pm.

In her third solo exhibition at Corbett vs. Dempsey, Gina Litherland unveils an exemplary group of oil paintings, continuing in a magic realist vein, but introducing new and unexpected elements. Several of the works are larger in scale, still incredibly detailed and masterfully executed, but covering an expanse that allows for an intensification of the narrative component. In The Floppy Boot Stomp (For Don Van Vliet), for instance, the complex scene finds an upside down female fiddler floating over a burning boot in a cornfield, a farmer racing to the conflagration, where a goat with a human face (and a Beefheart-esque beard) glows in the light of the flame. Continuously inspired by literature, Litherland composes with great specificity, sometimes, as in the case of the title painting, The Reason for the Unreason, incorporating text directly into the work. Her painting Don Juan in the Underworld, inspired by Charles Baudelaire, features a boatman with a contemporary white t-shirt and tattoos, while ghostly women peer at Don Juan in the back of the boat, blade at rest, looking pensive, reflective. A 28-page catalog accompanies the exhibition, featuring an extensive essay by Uruguayan writer Natalia Font.

Artist Page