Alexandra Zarins & Gokula Stoffel
The moon between my teeth
16th June – 22nd July 2023
Elizabeth Xi Bauer presents The moon between my teeth an exhibition of new works by Gokula Stoffel in conversation with Alexandra Zarins’ most recent series of paintings. Both Alexandra Zarins and Gokula Stoffel work extensively with figuration – across various mediums – to create a magical, oneiric universe. Rather than implying the human figure to create idyllic narratives, both artists share a taste for the mysterious, evident in their use of a darker palette and in the way they portray their subjects. Angular bones, mischievous eyes, fleshy limbs are all recurring motifs in both Stoffel and Zarins’ paintings. Their subjects appear to be caught between two worlds: this one and one of wild delights.
It is the first time Stoffel’s and Zarin’s works have been exhibited together. This exhibition continues the Gallery’s series of first time dialogues, initiated with Phantom Dance, an exhibition which for the first time showcased works by Theodore Ereira-Guyer and Thiago Barbalho together.
What draws together these two emerging artists is their connection to their predecessors: Paula Rego, Dorothea Tanning and Leonora Carrington, all of which explored a realm in which dreams hunt us rather than offer comfort.
The exhibition title: The moon between my teeth, is inspired by Anne Sexton’s poem ‘’The Frog Prince’’, which was published in ‘’Transformations.’’ First published in 1971, ‘’Transformations’’ is Sexton’s poem-story retellings of the Grimm’s Fairy Tales. Sexton uses the familiar children’s stories which are embedded in our collective sense of growing up in order to re-tell her own life experiences. In the ‘’Frog Prince’’, the speaker of the poem says, ‘’I took the moon, she said,/ between my teeth/ and now it is gone/ and I am lost forever.’’
Alexandra Zarins predominantly works with oil painting. Zarins is fascinated by the human figure and the psychology of portraiture. The artist draws inspiration from the Old Masters to reflect and respond to the figure in the context of our contemporary world. Leaning into the language of caricature and satire, she explores imagined alternate paradigms of people and creatures revelling and rioting in debauched arenas like playgrounds of hell. These worlds portray the night – which functions as the alien influence – in which our recognisable identities are changed. Disrupting the fun: the untamed ferocity and celebration of visceral impulses offered here, gives way to hedonism, and turns salacious and sinister, haunted by an undercurrent of existential dread. Her paintings satisfy a perverse desire to indulge in the grotesque and obscene, sometimes confronting us with uncomfortable reflections of society.
Zarins works from her imagination conjuring surreal moments of pronounced connection and intimacy. The obsessive repetitive marks build up layers as thick paint is pulled across the surface of the canvas presenting elongated figures that seem supportive yet hostile. Zarins is interested in the dialogue between intimacy with oneself and others, something that is comforting and peaceful yet also challenging and made uneasy by critical and over-analytical thoughts as crippling self-consciousness seeps in.
Zarins’ work for this exhibition uses formal painting techniques with oil on large canvases to create her worlds and subjects. For this exhibition, Stoffel’s works of varying mediums will surround Zarins’ canvases and will be installed in experimental positions such as above the canvases or below and so on.
For this exhibition Zarins has created a selection of paintings that further explore the notion of the human body and psyche working as one. Disagio, titled after the Italian for discomfort, depicts a scene in a club or party. The viewer’s perspective is from the top down, as if they were amongst the crowd of bodies who are pressed up against one another. There is a strong sense of claustrophobia and self-consciousness, as the artist forces both the viewer and her subjects to gaze down at their own hands and limbs, under a very self-critical and self-aware eye.
The Kiss is Zarins’ ode to Klimt’s piece. However, unlike in Klimt’s work, The Kiss (2022) which depicts two figures intertwined, Zarins’ painting focuses on the female figure’s intimate thoughts during the embrace. She appears to have four hands, which are in fact representative of memories of where her hands have been, of perhaps touching both this lover as well as others.
Gokula Stoffel’s paintings embody traditional techniques as well as the use of materials such as glass, wool and aluminium. Abstraction and figurative elements are weaved into her works with the outlines of human elements such as hair, a significant recurring motif within her oeuvre. In her work the human presence is more an object or an implication. Stoffel explores the possibilities of painting through a continuous investigation into portraits, landscapes, cutouts, and abstract textures. Memories, mental images and psychological states become materialised on the artist’s canvas.
Stoffel refuses a linear approach to her practice, instead she simultaneously combines materials and genres to explore and develop their possibilities in her studio practice.
Gokula Stoffel has created sculptural objects which depict detached human body parts such as hands, feet, heads, nipples and belly buttons. In these works, the artist explores how the movements of these sculpted limbs and body parts can portray emotions, from anger to contemplativeness. These elements will be attached to other structures such as canvases or connected through weaved materials and fragments of painting. These new works continue Stoffel’s investigation into the figure and the psyche.
Notes to Editors
Gokula Stoffel (born 1988, Porto Alegre, Brazil) lives and works in São Paulo, Brazil. Recent noteworthy solo presentations of Stoffel’s work include Persona, Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel, Galpão, São Paulo, Brazil, 2021; Para-Sol, Pivô, São Paulo, 2018; Alvorada de Vênus, Auroras, São Paulo, 2018 and Madona Ansiosa, Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel Galpão, São Paulo, 2017.
The artist has been included in several group shows such as Por muito tempo acreditei ter sonhado que era livre, Instituto Tomie Ohtake, São Paulo, 2022; A Sua Estupidez, Carpintaria, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2022; Apocalypse Now, Projeto Vênus, São Paulo, 2022; Lance, Centro Cultural São Paulo, São Paulo, 2022; Now, Museu Inimá de Paula, Belo Horizonte, Brazil; Pequenas Pinturas: Ato I; Auroras, São Paulo; Setas e Turmalinas, Casa de Cultura do Parque, São Paulo, 2022; Uma mão lava a outra; Olhão, São Paulo, 2022; Comme il Faut, Projeto Vênus, São Paulo, 2021; Drops, Galeria Index, Brasília, Brazil, 2021; Pulse, Carpintaria, Rio de Janeiro, 2020; Nightfall, Mendes Wood DM, Brussels, Belgium, 2018 and Abre Alas #12, A Gentil Carioca, Rio de Janeiro, 2016.
In 2022, Stoffel’s works were presented by Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel at the 18th edition of SP–Arte, Brazil. That same year, the artist’s works were exhibited by Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel in the second edition of Artissima XYZ. In 2021, Stoffel participated in the Gasworks residency, London. In 2020, her work was exhibited by Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel at Frieze London, Main Section, as well as exhibited as part of Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel’s presentation for the 2020 online edition of Art Basel. In 2018 Stoffel participated in the Pivo / Hello residency, Brazil. In 2018 and 2019 the artist was nominated for the PIPA Prize.
Stoffel’s work is in the collection of Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Rivoli, Italy.
Alexandra Zarins (born 1993, London, UK) lives and works in London. Zarins studied Fine Art at the University of Edinburgh before her passion for portraiture drew her to Florence at the Charles H. Cecil studios. The artist completed her MFA in Painting at the New York Academy of Art. In 2019, her works were exhibited as part of The Moncrieff-Bray Summer Show at Moncrieff-Bray Gallery, Egdean, Petworth, U.K.
Zarins’ work is in the collection of The Royal Geographical Society, London, as well as private collections.
Elizabeth Xi Bauer presents Alexandra Zarins & Gokula Stoffel: The moon between my teeth which will run from 16th June – 22nd July 2023, open Wednesday through to Saturday, 12 – 6 pm or by appointment. A Private View will be held on 15th June 2023, 6 – 8 pm in the presence of artists. Artists will be available for interviews.
