Christopher Corey Allen | From the bull the bee + Christina Ballantyne | Wrestling with Desire
HAIR + NAILS is pleased to present concurrent solo shows by Los Angeles-based painter Christina Ballantyne and New York City-based interdisciplinary artist Christopher Corey Allen.
The show opens Saturday, March 11, 2023, in the HAIR+NAILS storefront in Minneapolis. Christopher Corey Allen and HAIR+NAILS’ Ryan Fontaine and Kristin Van Loon first connected in the TC performance scene and Allen was one of the first solo shows in the gallery. Fans will enjoy their crisp attack, previously witnessed in video and print-based works, now applied to a rarified sculptural practice. Dazzled by Ballantyne’s contribution to the 2022 group show “Painting Show”, the gallery is thrilled to share 10 more strange and subtle paintings by the Los Angeles-based artist.
About Christina Ballantyne’s Wrestling with Desire:
These most recent paintings and sculptures by Christina further her previous investigations of the mechanics of desire. Her work stemming from introspection turns the personal into the collective. Christina is fascinated by what lies underneath a world that is driven by commodification. What her paintings uncover is a world that is constantly grasping for something that will provide a sense of completeness. This endless desire takes many forms from the material to the spiritual.
The path to wholeness traverses horrors and wonders and yet what drives one through these attractions is a deep-seated longing for stability and peace. The act of painting itself becomes a manifestation of this longing. The painter aims to reach the end of the painting and yet as soon as it is completed the work must begin again. Christina does not offer us an answer to these timeless questions, but instead, depicts observations of the various paths that people have taken in search of a final solution. Only through an individual questioning of our inner motivations, does the path to wholeness become clear.
Ballantyne says, “I work in a process of free association without preliminary drawings during which I paint the first images that come to mind without judgment and decipher their relationship to one another afterward. In this way, the painting acts as a mirror uncovering and reflecting my self-concept, behaviors, and recurrent existential questions.”
About Christopher Corey Allen’s From the bull the bee:
From pine tree resin, amber.
From fury, hail.
From acacia’s sap, the bond.
From raindrops, frogs.
From clay, yellow ochre.
From dust, fleas.
From the beetle, carmine.
From mud, the beetle.
From the murex snail, violet.
From sea foam, the anchovy.
From the lamb, parchment.
From the bull, the bee.
What?
From the mouth of a slaughtered bull,
cloaked in thyme and serpyllium,
the bee.
-Linda Bierds
In From the bull the bee, Christopher Corey Allen will present new works examining metamorphosis, shapeshifting and mimicry. As a starting point, this show applies a contemporary queer theory lens to the 17th century naturalist and illustrator Maria Sibylla Merian’s work on the superseded scientific theory of spontaneous generation, that some living creatures inexplicably arise from inanimate matter such as dust.
From the bull the bee will include a new series of sculptures made from scagliola. A tightly held traditional Italian art form using plaster and pigments to mimic marble stone. CCA uses this hands-on labor-intensive technique to create forms based on perceived symmetry found in human anatomy, insects, and projective psychology.
ARTIST BIOS:
Christopher Corey Allen is an interdisciplinary artist and educator based in Queens, New York. Their practice combines sculpture and expanded media, performance, and printmaking to explore ways of disrupting hegemonic narratives, radical perspectives, and the performance of self. They received an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art. Christopher’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally including at the Walker Art Center (Minneapolis, MN), Montage Hall (Berlin, Germany), Roman Susan Art Foundation (Chicago, IL) and Hair+Nails Gallery (Minneapolis, MN), among other venues. They have been the recipient of numerous awards including the Lenore G. Tawney Foundation Award and The Toby Devan Lewis Fellowship. Additionally, Christopher has participated in multiple residencies, including at the Frans Masereel Centrum (Kasterlee, Belgium) and at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (North Adams, MA). They have held faculty positions at the University of Minnesota and the University of Hartford. This will be their third show with Hair+Nails Gallery.
Christina Ballantyne lives in Los Angeles, CA. She received her MFA from the Art Institute of Chicago in 2021 and was a recipient of the Helen Frankenthaler Award in 2020. She has exhibited work in Chicago, IL, New York City, NY, Milwaukee, WI, and Austin, Tx.
Gallery Hours
Thursdays/Fridays/Saturdays/Sundays 1:00-5:00
Image:
Left- CHRISTOPHER COREY ALLEN, Untitled (2022) plaster, pigment, glue, water, wax, honeycomb, oil, sand. 30”x 16”x 4.5”
Right- CHRISTINA BALLANTYNE, Peace like Nymph of Spring (2023), oil on canvas. 22”x 20”
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