“Lest You Fall” (2019) by Naudline Pierre
JAMES COHAN GALLERY in New York announced its representation of Naudline Pierre today. Brooklyn-based Pierre makes figurative paintings and drawings suffused with enchanting color. Her images of fantastic and imagined worlds are populated with recurring characters who hold, carry, watch, and hover over a protagonist who serves as the artist’s alter ego. The works are grounded in notions of rescue and healing.
News of Pierre’s representation with James Cohan comes on the heels of her Studio Museum in Harlem residency, which concluded with a three-artist exhibition at MOMA PS1. “This Longing Vessel: Studio Museum Artists in Residence 2019–20” was on view from Dec. 10, 2020-March 14, 2021.
Pierre is joining a roster of about three dozen artists at James Cohan, including Firelei Báez, Trenton Doyle Hancock, Byron Kim, Elias Sime, and Yinka Shonibare.
Pierre’s first solo exhibition with the gallery opens in April 2022.
BORN IN LEOMINSTER, MASS., Pierre received an MFA from New York Academy of Art and a BFA from Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Mich. An up-and-coming artist, early in her career, recognition her of practice is already widespread.
Pierre’s paintings are featured in recent and current group exhibitions at museums across the United States, including “Enunciated Life” at the California African American Museum in Los Angeles; “Prisoner of Love” at MCA Chicago; and “Gifts of Art: 2019 Acquisitions” at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City, Mo.
She is also represented in permanent collection installations at the Pérez Art Museum Miami in Miami, Fla., and Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University in Durham, N.C.
In September, the Dallas Museum of Art is hosting Pierre’s first-ever solo museum exhibition. The show will feature “Lest You Fall” (2019) by Pierre. The painting was acquired by the museum in 2020. Also this fall, Pierre’s work will be showcased at Prospect.5, the New Orleans triennial.
“I think imagination is so important to survival. I grew up with a lot of language surrounding things unseen and heavenly bodies and celestial beings and seraphim and beasts and I think that being a kid and like learning about a beast with like seven heads and it was both terrifying and exhilarating,” Pierre said in a new video from James Cohan.
“Art and kind of figurative imagery were first introduced to me through religious painting and work so I think it’s always going to be part of the work. I like to see religious iconography through the lens of it being a tool, just like color and texture and composition.” CT
TOP IMAGE: NAUDLINE PIERRE, “A Timely Rescue,” 2019-2020 (oil on canvas, 84 x 60 inches / 213.4 x 152.4 cm). | © Naudline Pierre. Courtesy the artist and James Cohan Gallery
FIND MORE about Naudline Pierre on her website
Painter Naudline Pierre talks about her work from her Brooklyn, N.Y., studio. | Video by James Cohan Gallery
Installation view of works by Naudline Pierre featured in “This Longing Vessel: Studio Museum Artists in Residence 2019–20,” MoMA PS1 December 10, 2020–March 14, 2021. | Photo by Kris Graves
NAUDLINE PIERRE, “An Eternal Restlessness,” 2018 (oil on canvas, 28 × 26 inches). | © Naudline Pierre. Courtesy the artist and James Cohan Gallery
NAUDLINE PIERRE, “Hold Me This Way,” 2017 (oil and enamel on canvas, 54 × 53 inches). | © Naudline Pierre. Courtesy the artist and James Cohan Gallery
NAUDLINE PIERRE, “The Thrill of Affection,” 2018 (oil on canvas, 30 × 24 inches). | © Naudline Pierre. Courtesy the artist and James Cohan Gallery
Installation view of works by Naudline Pierre featured in “This Longing Vessel: Studio Museum Artists in Residence 2019–20,” MoMA PS1 December 10, 2020–March 14, 2021. Shown at left, “A Timely Rescue,” 2019-2020. | Photo by Kris Graves
Installation view of work by Naudline Pierre featured in “This Longing Vessel: Studio Museum Artists in Residence 2019–20,” MoMA PS1 December 10, 2020–March 14, 2021. | Photo by Kris Graves
NAUDLINE PIERRE, “Lead Me Gently Home,” 2019 (oil on canvas, 96 × 120 inches). | © Naudline Pierre. Courtesy the artist and James Cohan Gallery
