Modern Eden Gallery presents Secret Self, the San Francisco-debut solo exhibition from Brooklyn-based artist Lori Nelson. Nelson's work has been featured in group exhibitions at the gallery over the last several years, and we are excited to showcase a broader range of work from the artist.
From the artist: For the past five years, I have been exploring the awkwardness of young human existence through my "Cryptotweens" paintings where the strangeness of being has mostly been portrayed in cryptid-inflected tweens and teens sporting scales or fur. Lately though, in an iteration of this series called "Secret Self", I portray most of the Cryptotweens as actual "normal" humans whose strangeness is exhibited in extraordinary talents like levitation or hidden characteristics like a spiky, charcoal heart.
I'm finding that the interior monster or superpower is just as striking as the visible version, if not more so for its unpredictability and unknown shadow. "Secret Self" is an invitation to bring the hidden aspects of humanity forward, advancing the notion that we are all actually awkward, magical tween monsters on the inside.
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