BOZOMAG is pleased present its first solo exhibition with Alli Conrad entitled The Four Loves. An opening reception will be held on July 20th From 4pm to 8pm. Alli Conrad’s paintings transmute vulnerability while obscuring an acutely manufactured reality that exists in an undefinable liminal space — an amalgamation of time periods & places: representing “Golden Age” American nostalgia, Tangier in the early 20th century, and present day times. Through the use of cascading, patterned fabric and delicate crops of unspecified moments of intimacy, Conrad invites you into private vignettes of emotional connection. Conrad’s work depicts pastiche scenarios of an era that no longer, or maybe never, existed — while simultaneously challenging the viewer to engage in emotional transference. Inspired by C.S. Lewis’ seminal work “The Four Loves,” Conrad’s series contains studies of eros, (romance) philia, (friendship) agape, (unconditional love) and storge (affection).
Deeply influenced by an all encompassing writing practice anchored in compulsive archival elements, Conrad’s compositions of obscured and anonymous human bodies are purposeful. Mimicking narrative devices found in writing, she pushes the viewer’s unconscious desire to place themselves within the context of a work. Possibly it is you - sitting, observing, watching, feeling. Total immersion into a piece of writing, or a painting, enraptures. Identifying with fictitious characters might just be the most universal, yet involuntary, occurrence within the human psyche.
Conrad’s focus on the exaggerated fetishization of painted fabric aims to anthropomorphize our psychological experience of reliving or remembering through clothing. The manipulation and abstraction enacted in Conrad’s paintings are intentionally evocative. Nostalgia is an access point for the senses. By focusing on the language transmuted by the bodies living within said fabric, Conrad is triggering an audience to associate feelings with visible, visceral tangibility.
Within a memory, true reality is obscured. Desire especially has an intriguing way of manifesting inaccurately when re-lived. Memories are clouded by our own perspectives through heightened aesthetic exaggerations. The Four Loves as an exhibition serves as an indictment on not only our desire to connect, but that possibly the center of the world is based off of a single miscommunicated desire — wishing to love, and loving in return.
