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Installation view, James Cohan, 2018

Installation view, James Cohan, 2018

Installation view, James Cohan, 2018

Installation view, James Cohan, 2018

Installation view, James Cohan, 2018

Installation view, James Cohan, 2018

Installation view, James Cohan, 2018

Installation view, James Cohan, 2018

Installation view, James Cohan, 2018

Installation view, James Cohan, 2018

Installation view, James Cohan, 2018

Installation view, James Cohan, 2018

Installation view, James Cohan, 2018

Installation view, James Cohan, 2018

Installation view, James Cohan, 2018

Installation view, James Cohan, 2018

Installation view, James Cohan, 2018

Installation view, James Cohan, 2018

Installation view, James Cohan, 2018

Installation view, James Cohan, 2018

Installation view, James Cohan, 2018

Installation view, James Cohan, 2018

GRACE WEAVER, upkeep

GRACE WEAVER

upkeep

2018

Acrylic on canvas

89 x 95 in.

 

JCG100002

GRACE WEAVER, peak season

GRACE WEAVER

peak season

2018

Acrylic on canvas

89 x 95 in.

226.1 x 241.3 cm

 

JCG9930

GRACE WEAVER, account balance

GRACE WEAVER

account balance

2018

Acrylic on canvas

81 x 71 in.

205.7 x 180.3 cm

 

JCG10001

GRACE WEAVER, all the right angles

GRACE WEAVER

all the right angles

2018

Acrylic on canvas

91 x 81 in.

231.1 x 205.7 cm

 

JCG10004

GRACE WEAVER, underhanded

GRACE WEAVER

underhanded

2018

Acrylic on canvas

51 x 41 in.

129.5 x 104.1 cm

 

JCG10003

GRACE WEAVER, primer

GRACE WEAVER

primer

2018

Acrylic on canvas

71 x 61 in.

180.3 x 154.9 cm

 

JCG9932

GRACE WEAVER, ten-step

GRACE WEAVER

ten-step

2018

Acrylic on canvas

81 x 71 in.

205.7 x 180.3 cm

 

JCG9931

GRACE WEAVER, good intentions

GRACE WEAVER

good intentions

2018

Acrylic on canvas

71 x 61 in.

180.3 x 154.9 cm

 

JCG9933

GRACE WEAVER, best life

GRACE WEAVER

best life

 

2018

Charcoal on paper

23 1/2 x 18 in.

59.7 x 45.7 cm

 

JCG9835

GRACE WEAVER, the hostess

GRACE WEAVER

the hostess

 

2018

Charcoal on paper

23 1/2 x 18 in.

59.7 x 45.7 cm

 

JCG9973

GRACE WEAVER, heavy contour

GRACE WEAVER

heavy contour

2018

Charcoal on paper

23 1/2 x 18 in.

59.7 x 45.7 cm

 

JCG9974

GRACE WEAVER, lunch special

GRACE WEAVER

lunch special

2018

Charcoal on paper

23 1/2 x 18 in.

59.7 x 45.7 cm

 

JCG9975

GRACE WEAVER, overlining

GRACE WEAVER

overlining

 

2018

Charcoal on paper

23 1/2 x 18 in.

59.7 x 45.7 cm

 

JCG9976

GRACE WEAVER, beachfront property

GRACE WEAVER

beachfront property

2018

Charcoal on paper

23 1/2 x 18 in.

59.7 x 45.7 cm

 

JCG9977

GRACE WEAVER, intervals

GRACE WEAVER

intervals

2018

Charcoal on paper

23 1/2 x 18 in.

59.7 x 45.7 cm

 

JCG9978

GRACE WEAVER, layover

GRACE WEAVER

layover

 

2018

Charcoal on paper

23 1/2 x 18 in.

59.7 x 45.7 cm

 

JCG9979

GRACE WEAVER, balancing act

GRACE WEAVER

balancing act

 

2018

Charcoal on paper

23 1/2 x 18 in.

59.7 x 45.7 cm

 

JCG9980

GRACE WEAVER, all the best wishes

GRACE WEAVER

all the best wishes

2018

Charcoal on paper

23 1/2 x 18 in.

59.7 x 45.7 cm

 

JCG9981

 

GRACE WEAVER, backseat driver

GRACE WEAVER

backseat driver

2018

Charcoal on paper

23 1/2 x 18 in.

59.7 x 45.7 cm

 

JCG9982

GRACE WEAVER, the week ends, the week begins

GRACE WEAVER

the week ends, the week begins

2018

 

2018

Charcoal on paper

23 1/2 x 18 in.

59.7 x 45.7 cm

 

JCG9984

GRACE WEAVER, the bartender

GRACE WEAVER

the bartender

2018

Charcoal on paper

23 1/2 x 18 in.

59.7 x 45.7 cm

 

JCG9985

Press Release

James Cohan will present BEST LIFE, an exhibition of new paintings and drawings by Grace Weaver at the gallery’s Lower East Side location from September 14 through October 28. This is Weaver’s first solo exhibition at James Cohan. The gallery will host an opening reception with the artist on Friday, September 14, from 6-8 PM.

 

Grace Weaver’s paintings depict an atmospheric and accessible world drawn from the everyday past-times of modern American life. Touching upon diverse influences—from the concise brushwork of Bengali Kalighat paintings to the torqued perspectives of American Regionalism—Weaver creates whimsical paintings characterized by curving lines and juxtapositions of dense, bright color.  Her elastic-limbed, Mannerist figures arrange themselves before mirrors and promenade through parks, both observing and equally aware of being observed. Here, psychological narratives are suggested with an economy of expression—through the sideways tilt of a glance, the subtle curl of a lip, or the droopy slouch of a shoulder. Weaver describes her paintings as “emotional self-portraits.” These paintings are occupied with the self-conscious performativity and awkward aspirationalism of the artist’s generation, grounded in an insistent empathy with her subjects.

 

BEST LIFE features several large-scale acrylic paintings with multi-figure compositions. Peak season depicts eager sightseers, weary beachgoers, and a tiny beaming Segway rider—all painted in shades of hot pink and orange—as they traverse a winding footpath. Weaver tips the horizon line up past the edge of the canvas to create a compressed space of activity that unfolds entirely on the flat surface of the painting. In upkeep, the intimate atmosphere of a barbershop is thrown off-kilter by the painting’s spiraling composition. The gestural stripes of aprons and smocks worn by several of the figures amplify the lines of their rubbery limbs.

 

Another important motif in Weaver’s work is the solitary female portrait. In a series of paintings, a single girl is caught in the midst of a mundane ritual—a girl scrutinizes her complexion, a girl arranges a snapshot-worthy lunch, a girl attempts to contour her rounded cheeks. The girls Weaver paints are not necessarily drawn from life—rather, the artist considers them archetypes of feminine self-presentation. They are pictured in once-private spaces of preparation—the kitchen, the vanity mirror—that have been made semi-public through the lens of social media, recalling the frame of the YouTube tutorial and the lifestyle blog. These paintings have a melancholy to them, suggesting a frustrated will to perfection.

 

This exhibition also marks the first body of work where the artist shifts from oil to acrylic paint. The immediacy of the medium allows Weaver to incorporate swift, gestural brushstrokes and build up the painting in an additive way. Working in acrylic has changed the tempo of Weaver’s process, forcing her to work in a more deliberate and choreographed manner. For Weaver, there is a parallel between the striving of her subjects and the physical process of her painting. As she notes, “I’m drawn to these moments for their vulnerability, their precariousness. Just as these girls are trying to put themselves together, the painted surface is trying—also self-consciously—to put itself together. I think there is a funny resonance between an individual striving awkwardly toward some beauty ideal, and the act of painting, which is always alternately striving towards beauty, faltering, flailing, and reconsidering itself.”

 

Grace Weaver (b. 1989, Vermont) received an MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2015. Her work has been the subject of solo exhibitions in New York, NY; Burlington, VT; Berlin and Reutlingen in Germany, Glasgow, Scotland; and Chennai, India, and is featured in the collections of ­­­­FRAC des Pays de la Loire, Carquefou, France and ARoS Museum, Aarhus, Denmark. Weaver lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

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