Desire at Yancey Richardson Gallery

Desire—it's that longing you can't control, that, when left unsatisfied, can lead you to do some pretty crazy things. It's also the theme of the current exhibition at the Yancey Richardson Gallery. Curated by artist Jodie Vicenta Jacobson, Desire addresses sex, seduction, psychology, and death through the female gaze. The show represents an ensemble of notorious female artists including Cindy Sherman, Yoko Ono, Ana Mendieta, Louise Bourgeois, Tracey Emin, Marilyn Minter, Mariah Roberston, and Mickalene Thomas.

The gallery is teeming with suggestive pieces that tease the viewer, like Yoko Ono's small blank canvas slit in the middle titled touch me, Sharon Core's picture of sensual red candy apples, and Vivienne Griffin's Op-Art peephole drawing. Other pieces, like Janice Guy's exposed self-portraits and the collaborative paintings between Louise Bourgeois and Tracey Emin, A Millon Ways to Cum and Too Much Love, don't leave much to the imagination. The exhibition also explores the darker side of sexuality, with works like Ana Mendieta's Super-8 silent film Alma Silueta en Fuego, which portrays the effigy of a woman's body slowly catching fire. Similarly, Carol Bove's collage, Seed, meditates on memory and death.

The show also touches on the earlier phases of romance with high school-style innocence. Dru Donovan's endearingly awkward photograph of a teenage couple recall the hours spent in algebra class doodling your crush's name in a composition notebook. Overall, the works both incite desire as well as critique its ambitions.

Through August 23, 2013 | Images courtesy of Yancey Richardson Gallery

YANCEY RICHARDSON GALLERY
535 W 22nd St #3
New York, NY 10011
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