Nancy Mladenoff, Flight, 2020, acrylic on canvas, 36”x48”
Karen Heagle, Rimbaud, 2020, acrylic, ink, watercolor, collage, silver leaf on paper, 40.5” x 29.5”
Nancy Mladenoff, Float, 2020, acrylic on paper, 30”x40”
Karen Heagle, Hyena with Elephant Foot, 2021, acrylic, ink, watercolor, and colored pencil on paper, 14” x 11”
Karen Heagle, Two Monk Vultures, 2021, acrylic, ink, watercolor, and colored pencil on paper, 10” x 12”
Karen Heagle, Untitled Hyena Study, 2021, acrylic, ink, watercolor, colored pencil with gold and copper leaf on paper, 10” x 11”
Nancy Mladenoff, Anxiety of Hope, 2020, acrylic on paper, 9.5”x12”
Karen Heagle, Untitled (Hyena Feeding), 2021, acrylic, ink, watercolor on paper, 29.5” x 41”
Nancy Mladenoff, As The Crane Flies, 2020, acrylic on canvas, 30”x40”
Nancy Mladenoff, May 20, 2020, 2020, acrylic ink on paper, 9.5”x12”
Nancy Mladenoff, April 30, 2020, 2020, acrylic ink on paper, 9.5”x12”
Strange Nature
Karen Heagle and Nancy Mladenoff
June 24 - July 29, 2021
Strange Nature is the latest two-person exhibition at Peep with new paintings by Karen Heagle and Nancy Mladenoff. Heagle’s and Mladenoff’s emotive paintings break down anthropocentric hierarchy through self-referential exploration and spiritual symbolism.
Nancy Mladenoff’s paintings reference her time working from home at the start of the pandemic. Mladenoff’s isolation from the world resulted in a loss of self and a feeling of being reduced to just her possessions, which she symbolizes through clumps of clothes (her everyday outfit of plaid shirts, jeans, running shoes, and a bandana). Gradually a more active narrative emerged, complete with a disembodied protagonist among oversized insects, frogs, plants, birds and elements of nature. As the wildlife grew more outlandish and began donning human attire, an undercurrent of humor survived even in the most existentially chaotic moments.
Karen Heagle’s paintings work to queer the hierarchies of humans over animals in biological orders, gender binaries, race, and economics. Heagle’s wildlife and human subjects are shown as predators, scavengers and everything in between, symbolizing the complexity of identity in contemporary culture. Charged colors, a blunt physicality of brushwork, and emotional expression complement the seemingly gratuitous imagery. Metallic leaf, historically used across cultures to signify spiritual beings, makes many appearances throughout the work, operating as a device to elevate animals and nature to the level of humans and beyond.
Strange Nature’s enchanted realism helps us to view the world without looking through a destructive human-centric lens, and instead works to strengthen our non-hierarchical kinship with nature.
Insects and critters pose in PEEP Projects’ mostly people-free painting show, review by Corey Qureshi, Artblog, July 20, 2021
Karen Heagle (b. 1967 in Tomah, Wisconsin) is a visual artist who works primarily in painting and drawing. Her work reflects autobiographical symbolism, thematically focused on memento mori, feminism, sexuality, and queer identity. Often with wildlife subjects metaphorically depicting states of ecstasy and transformation, while also acting out predation suggesting a commentary on the brutality of contemporary culture. The charged colors in the works divert the potentially gratuitous imagery. Heagle’s work is in notable collections including the Contemporary Drawing Collection at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. She has exhibited widely in New York City, including most recently at Sargent’s Daughters, while also participating in many group exhibitions. She holds an MFA from Pratt Institute, and lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
Nancy Mladenoff (b. 1957 in Wakefield, Michigan) is a painter recently based in New York City after moving from Madison, WI where she taught in the UW-Madison Art Department for 25 years. She received her MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Mladenoff has had recent exhibitions at Leiminspace (Los Angeles, CA), Packer Schopf Gallery (Chicago, IL), Elmhurst Art Museum (Elmhurst, IL), Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (Madison, WI) International Forest Art Center (Darmstadt, Germany) and The Arsenal Gallery (New York, NY).