RACHEL SCHMIDHOFER: CITRONELLA/CINDERELLA

September 8 – October 6, 2013

Opening Reception – Sunday, September 8, 6PM

For immediate release

NOVELLA is pleased to present "Citronella/Cinderella", an exhibition of new work by Rachel Schmidhofer. The exhibition will run from September 8th to October 6th 2013.

For this exhibition, Rachel Schmidhofer explores the intersections between myth, memory, and imagination with a new set of paintings, all oil on panel. Working with the madcap intensity and intuition of an antique hunter, Schmidhofer scours the thrift stores of our collective unconscious seeking to connect with the cultural debris that pervades and constructs our identities and lives.

In her hands, formerly magical images and icons that have been dragged into banality by repetition are infused with quintessence once again. Spindly Christmas trees emerge out of dense swirls of impasto paint, bearing glossy, shimmering constellations of odd fruit. An ethereal winged Pegasus flies from the canvas as the horse of the muses, after serving a century as the Paramount Pictures logo.

Francis Bacon said that he loved Michelangelo’s drawings for the ‘voluptuous’ way they rendered male flesh. Rachel Schmidhofer, in turn, paints voluptuous pizza. Bleeding hearts of pepperoni dribble down the painted surface, embodying the greasy fingers and tormented spirits of the teenagers just beyond the frame, as their totem stands in for their bacchanal.

—Rachel Schmidhofer

Rachel Schmidhofer received her BFA from Washington University in 2003 and her MFA from Yale in 2011. She has exhibited her work in New York, NY, Los Angeles, CA and New Haven, CT. She lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

www.rachelschmidhofer.com