P·P·O·W is pleased to host an intimate conversation between painters Gerald Lovell and Taylor Simmons in conjunction with their ongoing solo exhibitions, Gerald Lovell: verde, at P·P·O·W and Taylor Simmons: LIMBO = Living Is My Best Option at Helena Anrather. Both friends and collaborators, Lovell and Simmons will discuss their distinctive approaches to painting, their parallel experiences growing up in Atlanta and moving to New York City, and the forces that drive their artistic practices.
Please join us in person at 390 Broadway, 2nd Floor, on Saturday, February 24, from 3:00 - 4:00pm for this discussion, followed by a Q&A.
No RSVP necessary for this event. Seating will be allocated on a first come, first served basis.
For Gerald Lovell (b. 1992, Chicago, IL), painting is an act of biography. Combining flat and impressionistic brushwork with thick daubs of impasto, Lovell’s monumental portraits depict brief moments of love often lost to time. Embracing the space between placelessness and freedom, loss and renewal, and the epic and quotidian, Lovell creates contemplative portraits of friends, travel, and nature that chronicle a journey towards self-actualization and discovery of home. Lovell began painting at the age of 22 after dropping out of the graphic design program at the University of West Georgia. He completed the Fountainhead Artists Residency in October 2023 and has exhibited at P·P·O·W, New York, NY; Jeffrey Deitch, Moore Building, Miami, FL; Anthony Gallery, Chicago, IL; Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich, CH; Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; The Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture, Charlotte, NC; and MINT, Atlanta, GA, among others. In 2022, Lovell’s work was on view in What is Left Unspoken, Love at the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA, and is in the museum’s permanent collection. Lovell has been featured in Harper’s Bazaar, Artsy, Artnews, Elephant Magazine, and The New York Times, among others.
Taylor Simmons' (b. 1990, Atlanta, GA) practice incorporates painting, printmaking and drawing to create predominantly figurative works that centre on the emotional and physical essence of the contemporary lives he depicts. His process stems from his archive of compulsively collated imagery, which merge and manifest in his canvases through loose lines, gestural marks, fluorescent washes and erasure –– scraping the paint away to reveal abstract details. By gathering and layering fragments of what is around him, his work creates a reflection of who he is and what he sees: a face, a pose, a moment, weaving them together as a means to question why they meant something in the first place. Simmons has exhibited at Half Gallery, New York, NY; Public Gallery, London, UK; Carlye Packer, Palm Springs, CA; Kravetz Wehby Gallery, New York, NY; Marlborough Gallery, London, UK; Particle Foundation, Miami, FL; and Martha’s Contemporary, Austin, TX, among others. In 2022, Simmons’ work was the subject of Where’s My Hug At? at the SIXI Museum, Nanjing China, and is in the museum’s permanent collection. Simmons’ work can also be found in the permanent collections of the Friedrich Christian Flick Collection, Berlin, Germany and the X Museum, Beijing, China.