COURTNEY CHILDRESS

Sarah Faux & Mandy Lyn Ford

Touching in the Dark

October 21 – December 11, 2016

Mandy Lyn Ford and Sarah Faux make art that evokes desire. Faux’s provocative imagery hints at the body: figures entangle with a stray nipple or orifice. In Ford’s case, she transforms

the canvas with dense textures and colors. The work appears straightforward and rests comfortably

within the language of painting and sculpture, yet underestimating the tactile power of

these works, the visceral reaction of an IRL experience would be to not fully ‘see’ these objects.

If we divorce ourselves from our sense of sight as the sole mode for experiencing painting,

these works give more by way of touch and surface recalling the meeting of skin on skin. The

closer you look the more personal and palpable the effect. Faux and Ford’s paintings stir a

physical response, good enough to eat, the mouth begins to water, the hands twitch and some

vague sense of urgency develops. Imagine months having gone by without feeling satisfied,

ready to come out of your skin, unglued.

Faux and Ford’s work move beyond just plain sight and generously offers a tactile engagement -

a visceral experience for the viewer. Ford uses extreme texture, building up her surface until it is

reminiscent of strange, densely layered foodstuff. It is physical work; it is direct and abrupt.

Ford constructs and then excavates her surfaces, exposing the history of her actions on the

piece. The final product taps into urges that we are taught to control, namely, the desire to physically

interact with the paintings.Faux’s enticingly tactile paintings further extend the appetite of

touching and being touched. The work evokes the touch of fruit skin, the swelling of a chest, the

crest of a wave. Looking at each stroke, we transcend the position of being merely an observer;

through her swooping motions, luscious textures and densely rich colors, we are invited into her

creative process, gaining access through the application of layer upon layer of paint. They are

seductive and meditative, the final result obfuscating her first bits of thought and stray marks.

Sarah Faux holds an MFA Yale School of Art and a dual BFA/BA from the Rhode Island School

of Design and Brown University. She has been an artist-in-residence at the Ox-bow School of

Art, Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild and Yaddo. Recent exhibitions include: Stems Gallery, Brussels,

Belgium (2016); Cuevas Tilleard, New York, NY (2016 & 2015); Fredericks & Freiser Gallery,

New York, NY (2016); ltd los angeles, Los Angeles, CA (2016); Garis & Hahn Gallery, New York,

NY (2015); Night Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (2014); & Shoot the Lobster, New York, NY (2013).

Faux’s paintings have been reviewed in Surface Magazine, Modern Painters, The Wall Street

Journal and Hyperallergic.

Mandy Lyn Ford lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. She holds a BA from UCLA, Los Angeles,

CA. Her recent exhibitions include: TSA LA, Los Angeles, CA (2016); Somewhere in LA, LTAC,

Los Angeles, CA (2016); Momenta Gallery, Brooklyn, NY (2016); Platform Gallery, Baltimore,

MD (2015); Vanity Projects, New York, NY & Miami, FL (2015); Life on Mars Gallery, Brooklyn,

NY (2015 & 2014); & Novella Gallery, New York, NY (2014)