On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions
THE PORTRAITS Corey Pemberton makes capture people he knows at home. The artist describes his subjects as “people in his life whose bodies and identities fall outside of the traditional raced, gendered, and sexualized boundaries of ordinariness.” Pemberton’s current exhibition unites these two concerns. His paintings picture people during private moments in safe spaces of their own making. His subjects may feel vulnerable and othered in larger society. At home, they are enveloped in comfort and freedom and the luxury of time for contemplation and repose.
Presented at UNREPD in Los Angeles, “home/body” features new mixed-media paintings, including a self portrait. Maurice Harris, founder of the floral design studio Bloom & Plume in Echo Park and the artist’s partner, is the subject of three of the portraits on view, two of them nudes. Pemberton’s sitters have a commanding presence, but the interiors in which he situates them are characters unto themselves. Highly designed and highly personalized with meaningful objects, the domestic scenes are suffused with color and layered with architectural details, modern furniture, stacks of books, plants, vases filled with fresh flowers, and a lively mix of patterned wallpaper, bedding, throw pillows, and rugs. Art is also ever present, bringing the walls to life.
Pemberton, who grew up in Reston, Va., lives and works in Los Angeles. Given his attention to the domestic, it seems appropriate that Pemberton’s first West Coast solo exhibition is on view at UNREPD, a new contemporary art gallery housed in a vintage designer furniture showroom. Founded last year in West Hollywood by Sarah Mantilla Griffin and Tricia Benitez Beanum, the gallery works with emerging and mid-career artists who identify as BIPOC, female, or non-binary.
“We started looking specifically for people who had something to say that might be interesting, that might be new, that might be fresh, that might be controversial,” Mantilla Griffin said. “UNREPD is a space for emergence. What exactly does that mean? It means that things that were unseen or unheard can be brought to light.” CT
“Corey Pemberton: home/body” is on view at UNREPD in Los Angeles, Calif., from Sept.18-Oct. 18, 2021
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COREY PEMBERTON, “The Collector,” 2021 (acrylic, inkjet prints, and pressed flowers on canvas, 60 x 72 inches). | © Corey Pemberton
COREY PEMBERTON, “Everything changes, everything Moves,” 2021 (acrylic,inkjet prints, and pressed flowers on canvas, 3 6x 48 inches). | © Corey Pemberton
COREY PEMBERTON, “Maurice,” 2021 (acrylic, inkjet prints, and graphite on canvas. 36 in. x 48 inches). | © Corey Pemberton, Photo by Jamaal Tolbert
Installation view of “Corey Pemberton: Home/Body,” UNREPD, Los Angeles (Sept. 18-Oct. 18, 2021). | Photo by Ace Misiunas
COREY PEMBERTON, “And yet it seems like nobody is impressed,” 2021 (acrylic, found textiles, sheet glass, and inkjet prints on canvas, 60 x 72 inches). | © Corey Pemberton
Installation view of “Corey Pemberton: Home/Body,” UNREPD, Los Angeles (Sept. 18-Oct. 18, 2021). | Photo by Ace Misiunas
Installation view of “Corey Pemberton: Home/Body,” UNREPD, Los Angeles (Sept. 18-Oct. 18, 2021). | Photo by Ace Misiunas
COREY PEMBERTON, “Me and a few of my favorite things,” 2021 (acrylic,graphite, hand cut paper, and inkjet prints on canvas, 48 x 60 inches). | © Corey Pemberton
The artist Corey Pemberton (center) with UNREPD co-founders, from left, Tricia Benitez Beanum and Sarah Mantilla Griffin. | Photo courtesy UNREPD
Tricia Benitez Beanum, who operates the art consultancy Art House Market, and Sarah Mantilla Griffin, owner of Pop-Up Home, explain why they came together to form UNREPD. | Video by UNREDP
TOP IMAGE: Installation view of “Corey Pemberton: Home/Body,” UNREPD, Los Angeles (Sept. 18-Oct. 18, 2021). | Photo by Ace Misiunas
FIND MORE about Corey Pemberton on his website
