Jennifer Sullivan

"A woman gets stretch marks from one of two things. Either she was big and got small or she was small and got big."

- Katt Williams

Real Estate Fine Art is pleased to present Stretch Marks, a solo exhibition of paintings by Jennifer Sullivan. Sullivan depicts the intimate fabric of her life with so much humor and directness that you scarcely notice the incisive socio-cultural and political undertones. If Pierre Bonnard had been a single woman with a wicked sense of humor living in contemporary, hyper capitalist New York City he might have made these paintings.

They create a sense of first person narrative that is more implied than overt. The artist paints herself masturbating, posting on tinder, trying on lingerie, and kissing a spectral young man. All the while her cat, the ever present spectator/companion, looks on.

The degree of frankness and humor in these scenes is disarming as is the way in which Sullivan handles paint. The quick and rough approach she takes leaves no room for fussiness and surpasses many of her contemporaries in its reductive strategies. However, much like the sharp thematic undercurrents the use of materials also belies an understated sophistication.

The cliche is that the formula for humor is tragedy plus time. These paintings are deeply funny in a way that is lingering, haunting, and the perfect antidote to the all of the bipartisan anger and vitriol in our current political landscape. These quick, yet inherently subtle depictions of Sullivan’s intimate life unfold in front of us in a way that has broader implications both visually and culturally than can be immediately ascertained. She twists the knife with an enigmatic smile, and a wink.

Jennifer Sullivan is a New York-based artist working in painting, video, and performance. Solo exhibitions include Revenge Body at Five Car Garage, Los Angeles, CA (2016), House Cat at Arts + Leisure, New York, NY, (2015), Big Girl Paintings, Five Car Garage, Los Angeles, CA (2014), Adult Movie, Las Cienegas Projects, Los Angeles, CA (2011), and One-Week Walden, Freight + Volume, New York, NY (2010). Sullivan has also exhibited and performed in exhibitions at NADA NY, Marvin Gardens, Safe Gallery, Essex Flowers, Pablo's Birthday, 247365, Klaus Von Nichtsaggend, St. Charles Projects, and the deCordova Museum. Awards include a fellowship at the Fine Arts Work Center, and residencies at the Lighthouse Works, Skowhegan, Ox-Bow, and Yaddo. Her work has been reviewed in the New York Times, The Brooklyn Rail, Artforum, and Art Papers, and her videos are included in the Geisel Library collection at the University of California in San Diego. She is represented by Five Car Garage in Los Angeles, CA where she currently has a solo show on view titled The Soft Animal of Your Body.