Mary Henderson Yell, 2020 Oil on panel 42 x 42” $18,000
Sarah Zwerling Suspended, 2021 Archival print 40 x 40” $2,290
Design for Living
Featuring: Mary Henderson & Sarah Zwerling February 24 - April 3, 2021 Cover, left to right: Pull, Mary Henderson Reach, Sarah Zwerling
InLiquid is pleased to present Design for Living, a two-person exhibition of Philadelphia artists and longtime friends, Mary Henderson and Sarah Zwerling. The exhibition features bodies of work the artists began prior to 2020, which they have reworked and recontextualized in response to the events of the last year. Using very different media, Henderson (a painter) and Zwerling (a digital artist and sculptor), both explore themes of isolation and connectivity. Although Henderson’s imagery includes only figures, while Zwerling’s consists exclusively of landscapes and architectural details, the formal similarities in their work are sometimes striking. Responding to the format made ubiquitous by Instagram, Henderson and Zwerling both work within squares, presenting their subjects out of context and contrasting passages of great complexity with large expanses of negative shape. Both artists are interested in the idea of visual pathmaking, using overlapping and repeating shapes to navigate through complex formations of figures and natural structures. During the last year, the theme of pathmaking has taken on additional metaphorical resonance. Finding throughlines and connectivity in the accumulation of small moments, moving through complicated spaces step by step, and seeking out repetition, patterns and cycles have become not just artistic strategies but also means for survival. Sarah Zwerling Stream, 2021 Archival print 11 x 18” $495
Mary Henderson makes group portraits that exp identity. Shown in an unguarded moment of vuln the subjects of the paintings exist in a state of su individual and collective identity. Henderson is in people communicate shared identity in the absen competing theories of the crowd (as unified orga of individuals). How do individual gestures, ampli repetition, present as a collective, physical force, interpret these shared movements as either threa
Although the events of the last year — including b explosion of mass protest around issues of racial recontextualized the work, Henderson’s primary t the same: group allegiance, power, and the public is intended to be neither critical nor celebratory. mostly about joyful solidarity are often tinged wit Henderson wants the paintings to feel humane, it that, even in a moment when group activity feels the work is still able to consider the radical possib collective effervescence — to temper discomfort
plore the subject of collective nerability and reflection, uspension between nterested in the ways nce of clear markers, and in anism versus an aggregate ified through proximity and , and what causes us to atening or benign?
both the pandemic and the l and criminal justice — have thematic concerns remain c vs. private self. The work The paintings that are th unease. At the same time, t is important to Henderson s distant and dangerous, bilities of pleasure and t with hope.
Sarah Zwerling’s large digital prints are made by stitching together multiple photographs into one seamless image. By combining large numbers of source photos on the computer, she is able to create images with the highest resolution throughout, with each layer shown in equal focus. Isolating forms from their environment and placing them against a dark background, she removes them from “real” space, drawing attention to the connectivity and flow between natural shapes. For Zwerling, the image itself is not important; it’s the experience: the work captures an emotion, rather than a specific location or moment in time. The continuity of focus in the prints, along with their large scale, creates an immersive experience, similar to an installation, in which the viewer is invited to enter into the image and become enveloped in a chromatic landscape. Every detail is given equal importance, allowing the viewer to experience tiny moments differently every time.
Mary Henderson Pop, 2017 Oil on panel 30 x 30” $10,000
Mary Henderson Pause, 2021 Oil on panel 16 x 16” $6,500
Mary Henderson Queue, 2020 Oil on panel 16 x 16” $6,500
Mary Henderson Center, 2020 Oil on panel 16 x 16” $6,500
Mary Henderson Forward, 2021 Oil on panel 16 x 16” $6,500
Mary Henderson Park, 2020 Oil on panel 16 x 16” $6,500
Mary Henderson Hats, 2020 Oil on panel 16 x 16” $6,500
Sarah Zwerling Thread, 2021 Archival print 11 x 25” $606
Left to right:
Sarah Zwerling Drift, 2021 Archival print 40 x 40” $2,290 Mary Henderson Sunshine, 2020 Oil on panel 42 x 42” $18,000 Sarah Zwerling Close, 2021 Archival print 40 x 40” $2,290
Left to right:
Mary Henderson Pull, 2019 Oil on panel 42 x 42” $18,000 Sarah Zwerling Reach, 2021 Archival print 40 x 40” $2,290 Mary Henderson Again and Again, 2019 Oil on panel 42 x 42” $18,000
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All works are available for purchase on Artsy