iGagosian · Chelsea
Bea Scaccia's debut exhibition with the gallery, at the Park & 75 space: seven new paintings of nocturnal, sumptuous scenes assembled from fabric, wigs, jewelry and other accoutrements of feminine style, curated by Francesco Bonami.
In the largest painting, a tangle of cloth and pillows lies on a bed and holds up a book. No face, no skin. Heels over Head, or Pillow Talk, a nine-foot diptych, sends up Manet's Olympia and Fragonard's girls reading in their boudoirs, with the body replaced by bedding.
The other six paintings work the same way. You look for figures and find wigs, costume jewelry, zippers, bows and faux fur bundled into puppet-like limbs in fishnet tights, trying to sit on chairs, climb ladders or lift dumbbells and never quite managing. Scaccia mixes gesso into acrylic to mute the colour, so every scene reads as night, lit by fringed lamps and precariously placed candles. It is the only place on Park Avenue where the accessories do the yoga.
The gallery points to Hans Bellmer's dolls, Mike Kelley and Sarah Lucas, so come if those are your references. Entry is free at Park & 75, 821 Park Avenue, Tuesday to Saturday 10am to 6pm, until 23 December.
Heels over Head, or Pillow Talk (2026)
The nine-foot diptych where Olympia's reclining nude becomes a heap of cloth and pillows on a bed, faceless but still holding up a book.
The figures that can't sit down
Look for surrogate bodies hovering over chairs without quite sitting, clutching dumbbells and twisted into yoga-like poses.
The ladder paintings
Cloth and accessories draped over ladders, climbing nowhere and hanging like marionettes.
You want bodies in your figure painting: every figure here is built from fabric and accessories.