Gemini

February 28–April 4, 2020
West 24th Street, New York

Colors charge us externally and internally. I translate these colors into works every day. On an intuitive level, I am guided by the colors in nature.
—Jennifer Guidi

Gagosian is pleased to present Gemini, an exhibition of new paintings by Jennifer Guidi. This is her first exhibition with Gagosian in New York, following a 2018 exhibition, Heliocentric, at the gallery’s Hong Kong location.

Guidi’s radiant, mandala-like paintings are characterized by patterns and subtle textural and chromatic shifts, forging a connection with Minimalism while evoking metaphysical themes that transcend Western traditions. Her immersive compositions incorporate sand along with oil and acrylic paints to investigate color, light, and archetypal imagery. Beginning with an underpainting, she applies a thick layer of sand to the surface. While it is still wet, she makes marks with a wooden dowel in controlled and repetitive movements, often adding sand and paint in a U-shape on the top edge of the divots.

In Gemini—named for her own astrological sign—Guidi explores dualities: light and darkness, abstraction and figuration, science and mysticism. Viewers first encounter this focus in the twinned snakes of To Protect and Hold You Up (2019). Tracing links between cosmic and earthly forces, Guidi finds symmetry in opposition. In seven diptychs featuring triangular and circular canvases, the colors correspond to those of the chakras, a system of circular energy centers located in the body that inspires Guidi’s artistic and meditative practices alike.