Via distortion and exaggeration, Christina Quarles strips figures to their essence, exposing aspects of the human condition in the raw. Recalling Francis Bacon with a more hopeful, feminine twist, the large-scale paintings in Quarles’ Regen Projects show, “But I Woke Jus’ Tha Same,” portray gymnastically contorted figures melting, seeping and protruding into one another and their surroundings, often appearing engaged in carnal activities of indeterminate nature. In paintings such as Bless tha Nightn’gale (2019, pictured above), gesture and corporeal substance are so jumbled that it’s difficult to tell where one subject ends and where another begins. Severed and reattached limbs twist and turn like snakes; elongated digits writhe like worms. Deformed bodies lack key elements such as heads and are often denuded to bare muscle or bone. Such grotesquerie is counterpointed by the exuberant prettiness of Quarles’ cheery palette, lively patterns and floral motifs. Multiform congruence is her paintings’ most gratifying attribute; divergent brushstrokes, lines and textures dance in variegated harmony against bare beige canvas. The artist has spoken of her own experience with ambiguity as a queer mixed-race woman. Perhaps her unclassifiable figures do not represent separate individuals, but different versions of the same person coming to terms with conflicting facets of her own identity.

Regen Projects
6750 Santa Monica Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90038
Show runs through May 9