Todd Bienvenu

Harper’s is pleased to present Todd Bienvenu’s Rabble Rouser in tandem with Stacy Leigh’s Under New Management. Together, Leigh and Bienvenu invite us to challenge gender roles through their naughty, raunchy, and humorous figurative paintings.

In Rabble Rouser, the content of Todd Bienvenu’s textured acrylic canvases is autobiographical, providing an energetic look into his interests in surfing, skating, punk music, and his role as a husband and soon-to-be father. In densely layered paintings, Bienvenu packs an unbelievably large group of surfers into one space to catch a wave. The heavy layers leave an imprint of the artist, something he finds refreshing in a digital age. In one instance, a sea of hands guides a crowd surfer at a concert, while in another painting, spectators at a football game rush the field. The crowds are so large that faces begin to blur and blend into one another, becoming abstracted. The artist’s deep interest in light gives the paintings a cinematic quality and directs our eye to a focal point. Perhaps the most cinematic and imaginative of all is TMNT, where we find a group of punks, armed with poles and knives, fighting the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in a dark alley. Here, the artist is harkening back to the fictional characters of his own childhood—a self-reflexive exercise for the expectant dad. Who is the rabble-rouser in this body of work? The musician on stage, the leader of the gang, or the artist himself?

Bienvenu’s wife makes several appearances in this series; the artist chooses to create unconventional portraits, where her essence is captured more than her likeness. Rather than be sucked into a large crowd, she is presented to us as a solitary figure, whether she is on a roof in Brooklyn taking in the Manhattan skyline at night or in the ocean looking over her shoulder. Bienvenu always inserts his sense of humor into the works; in Big Wedgie, his wife is caught in the act of picking at her bikini bottom, revealing an impressive tan line. Perhaps these snapshot portraits intentionally contrast with the chaotic, action-filled canvases to show that for Bienvenu, his wife is a source of solace, stillness, and calm. The artist is admittedly self-reflexive and self-conscious, consistently pondering what it means to be a heterosexual man, a partner, and a father. He also wonders where he fits within the lineage of male artists, specifically the Abstract Expressionists of 1950s New York, whom he tries to move away from both formally and personally. Bienvenu makes a conscious effort to counter these artists’ reputations as alcoholics and abusers by leading with compassion. Both self-deprecating and sensitive, he captures an alternative male energy, one that steers clear of toxic masculinity.

—Tina Barouti

Todd Bienvenu (b. 1980, Little Rock, AR) received a BFA from Louisiana State University, and an MFA from New York Studio School. His work has been the subject of recent solo presentations at Almine Rech, New York, Shanghai, and London (2022, 2020, and 2018); Galerie Sebastien Bertrand, Geneva (2022, 2019, and 2016); Galerie Laurent Godin, Paris (2018); Harper’s, East Hampton (2017); and Yours Mine & Ours, New York (2017). Reviews of his work have appeared in New York Times, The Brooklyn Rail, and Vice, among other publications. Bienvenu lives and works in New York City.