iGagosian · Chelsea
Julie Curtiss: UNREAL
New paintings by Julie Curtiss of faceless figures in New York apartments, laundromats and bodegas, in her first presentation with Gagosian in New York, at 541 West 24th Street.
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Preview: written before the show opened
In one painting, the back half of an elephant stands inside a bodega doorway, the shopfront plastered with ads for baked goods and deli sandwiches. The bodega cat has competition.
These are new paintings, Curtiss's first with Gagosian in New York, set in the city: apartments, laundromats, bodegas, a fortune teller's window. The people are cropped or turned away, so you never get a face. In Makeover, two women in fur coats, sunglasses and post-surgery compression masks stand with their backs to you. Only the animals show their faces: fish and a crab in restaurant tanks on Grand Street, and a squid fighting a whale in a bedroom, borrowed from a diorama at the American Museum of Natural History.
"Nothing feels real right now," Curtiss says, and the gallery promises sly humour to go with it. Entry is free at 541 West 24th Street, Tuesday to Saturday 10am to 6pm. The opening reception is Tuesday 10 November, 6 to 8pm, and the show runs until 19 December.
Look for
Bodega (2026)
In a flat, stark composition, an elephant's hindquarters fill a shop doorway whose outside is covered in ads for baked goods and deli sandwiches.
Makeover (2026)
Two women seen from behind in fur coats, sunglasses and postoperative compression face masks, their hair, fur and accessories painted pattern by pattern.
Dirty Laundry (2026)
Look down: a man's and a woman's formal shoes face each other on a checkerboard floor in front of a row of washing machines.
Squid and Whale (2026)
The predator fight from a Natural History Museum diorama, a scene no human has actually witnessed, moved from the ocean depths into a bedroom.
Grand Street (2026)
A restaurant kitchen at night, with tanks of fish, mussels and a crab under coloured light and roasted ducks hanging in the window.
Good for
- Cheap Culture
- Locals Who've Seen It All
- Rainy Days
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Image credits
9
- Julie Curtiss: UNREAL© Julie Curtiss. Photo: Lance Brewer
- David Byrne: Stairwell DrawingsDavid Byrne / Pace Gallery
- David Lamelas: The MachineJoeyvandernaald, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Anna Maria Maiolino. ANNA—And the Infinite LineCourtesy of Hauser & Wirth
- GagosianKazuhisa Otsubo (Flickr/cytech), via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
- Pace GalleryPace Gallery
- Dia ChelseaFound5dollar, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Hauser & WirthJim.henderson, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- David ZwirnerCourtesy David Zwirner