Katie Stout: Side Dish at R & Company
26 September - 26 October '17
R & Company is thrilled to announce Side Dish, a solo exhibition of Katie Stout opening in the lower level gallery September 26. This is Stout’s first comprehensive exhibition at R & Company and a presentation of all new works. For the exhibition, the designer has transformed the gallery space into an immersive environment that reflects her playful and spontaneous studio practice.
On view are Stout’s latest girls series including new lamps, mirrors, tables and seating, each composed of unique female forms posed in provocative stances. Handcrafted in clay, these stylized female nudes are represented as domestic objects, meant to satirize the objectification and traditional role of women by way of extreme kitsch. Stout states “The girls - clearly adult women - are titled as such in a reflection of how society disempowers and fetishizes women by referring to them as girls. Women can be sloppy, weird, lumpy, mischievous and naked, and that’s just fine.“ Despite their designated functions as lamps, mirrors, and other household objects, the girls are noticeably distracted from their tasks at hand and their suggestive forms are confidently carefree.
The girls series are presented on display in a whimsical environment envisioned by Stout. Spanning the gallery is a wallpaper of girls interlocked in different poses with dynamic expressions. Covering the floor is a vibrant carpet which features a mutated fruit and wild flower pattern, designed by the artist in collaboration with Amini. The exhibition also presents a new series of benches, chairs and stumps designed in Stout’s playful style and made in various types of marble. Together these works transform the gallery space into an immersive, inventive and playful world of Stout’s creation. She states, “The girls are my vision of utopia, where females can exist in a domestic sphere unencumbered from societal pressures and encouraged to explore and play.“
