RENE LYNCH . Cassandra Dilemma
RENE LYNCH . Cassandra Dilemma
September 25 - November 14
Opening Party: September 25 5-8pm
Artist Talk Event: October 10 3pm
Arts Gowanus Open Studio Tour: October 16 & 17 12-6pm
This exhibition sponsored in part by City Artists Corps Grant
READ the REVIEW by Kent Stephens, "Cassandra Dilemma, paintings by Rene Lynch. Beauty and Terror in Brooklyn"
www.cheekymagpie.org/post/cassandra-dil…
Metaphor Projects is pleased to launch its 2021-22 season with Cassandra Dilemma, new paintings by Rene Lynch, opening September 25 through November 14, 2021.
Created over the past two years Lynch’s seven large scale oil paintings address the crucial issue of climate change head on in a series of striking vignettes reflecting the extremity of our shared global concern. Following yet another summer of non-stop climate news; droughts and wild fires, the catastrophic winds and rain of hurricanes and typhoons, and record heatwaves across the northern hemisphere, Lynch’s new works reflect both on the devastation of these fearsome phenomena and the urgency of our need to confront them. In her defense of Mother Nature, Lynch invokes the memory of the Trojan princess Cassandra who was gifted by Apollo with knowledge of the future, but then cursed by him that no one would believe the truth she offered.
In 1999 Environmentalist Alan AtKisson first applied the phrase Cassandra Dilemma to the problem of climate crises denial. Now, two decades later the problem of inaction has only grown more acute. With this in mind Lynch’s paintings take us on a journey across our planet to bear witness where waters rise, storm clouds gather, and fires burn, but she also takes us deep into the hopeful beauty of the natural world and its fecund abundance that sustains us, and now so desperately needs our wise stewardship. Today our own eyes provide plentiful evidence of nature’s destructive fury yet denial persists as Cassandra wanders, suffers, seeking those who will listen. Rene Lynch’s Cassandras remind us of this excerpt by Kenyan poet Warsan Shire, “I held an atlas in my lap/ran my fingers across the whole world/ and whispered, where does it hurt?/ it answered, everywhere, everywhere, everywhere.”
about the artist
Rene Lynch is a painter of dreamlike realism, who explores the power of female archetypes in myth, fairytale, and society.
Born in Decatur, IL, Rene Lynch studied painting and art history at Virginia Commonwealth University, and The Business of Art, Curatorial Studies Program, New York University She lives and works in Brooklyn, NY
Her work has been widely exhibited nationally and internationally, including several solo exhibitions in Germany at Galerie Kaysser in Munich, Cologne, and Berlin, at HPGRP Gallery, NYC, Tokyo and Osaka, Japan, and Jenkins Johnson Gallery NYC and San Francisco, 490 Gallery, and Main Window, Brooklyn. Museum exhibitions include a solo at Galerie Kunstlade Museum, Zittau, Germany, major works in Munich at Haus der Kunst Contemporary Art Institute and twice at Hunterdon Museum, NJ. as well as Museum of the City of New York, Kotonah Museum of Art, PS1 Museum, and Virginia Museum of Fine Art.
Lynch’s work can be found in numerous private and public collections throughout the United States, Germany, France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Turkey, Russia and Japan, and has been featured in numerous publications including New York Times, Boston Globe, Washington Post, Art and Antiques magazine, Bunte magazine, Oxford American magazine, American Art Collector magazine, Boulevard Magazine, Såchsische Zeitung, among others. Several catalogues were published about her work with essays by Eleanor Heartney, Charlotta Kotik, Nicole Rudick, Cornelia Kleyboldt, Kristen Accola and Paul Laster among others.
She has given Artists Talks at Sackler Center for Feminist Art /Brooklyn Museum, NY, Aldrich Museum, CT, Hunterdon Museum, NJ, Kunstlade Museum, Germany, Sotheby's Auction House, NY, Chelsea Art Museum, NY, Abrons Art Center, NY, New York Foundation for the Arts, NY, Academy of Art, Lumine, Tokyo, Japan, Umeda Gallery, Osaka, Japan, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, NYC, Kenise Barnes Gallery, NY, Pratt Institute, NY and many other universities and colleges.
Rene Lynch has been awarded several fellowships, including; two studio program awards from P.S.1/Museum of Modern Art, NYC, four fellowships from Virginia Center for Creative Arts, two fellowships from Oberpfalzer Kunstlerhaus, Germany, and AIR Ruhpolding, Germany, Manhattan Graphic Center, Millay Colony, NY and twice from Soaring Gardens, PA, among others.
RENE LYNCH . Cassandra Dilemma
September 25 - November 14, 2021
Opening Party: September 25 5-8pm
Artist Talk Event: October 10 3pm
Arts Gowanus Open Studio Tour: October 16 & 17 12-6pm
This exhibition sponsored in part by City Artists Corps Grant