Eric Lawton

New Collectors is pleased to present A Cherished Haunting, a group exhibition featuring five domestic and international artists working across the mediums of painting, mixed media, sculpture and film. Starting from the vantage point of vernacular photography, or quotidian images that are produced and consumed outside the realm of fine art such as family snapshots or found periodicals, these artists repurpose and expose our nostalgic ties to the past. The artists presented bring to light a nuanced interplay of sentimentality and power, and expose the incomplete nature of supposedly settled narratives. As each physical record is transformed and re-contextualized into new mediums by each artist, collective notions of desire and greatness become hazier, exposing a more tangled picture along the way.

A Cherished Haunting brings together a diverse array of artistic mediums to highlight the transformative power of reframing vernacular photography and technology. From Rebhuhn's witty undressing of the domestic space to Clayton's juxtaposition of historical myth and small town news, each artist questions the sincerity of surface level ideals. Lancaster's commanding glass paintings combined with Thompson's meticulous examination of discarded attire highlight the potency of the clothes we choose to wear and what gets left behind when we take it off. Gad’s film underscores this sentiment by providing a glimpse of wistful potential, while still unmasking the structural limits present within the medium. In that sense, the exhibition acts as a meditation on the malleability of collective memory and the inherently unreliable stories embedded in the act of reimagining the familiar. A Cherished Haunting leaves an enduring suspicion, prompting reflection on the ever-shifting tapestry of our shared human experience.

Installation Images

Images © Eric Lawton