Though at first seeming to depict ordinary, even prudish interior domestic scenes, upon closer inspection Anne Buckwalter’s paintings reveal provocative signs of sex, eroticism and sensuality. In Clean Linens, her first solo show at Rachel Uffner Gallery, Buckwalter brings to center stage parts of life that are usually clandestine and personal.

Self Portrait, Age 9, Anne Buckwalter, 2021, gouache on panel. Courtesy the artist and Rachel Uffner Gallery.

Included in the show is a series of self portraits at ages 9, 14, 21, and 34, each with different objects laid flat on a bed, but none showing the artist herself. In Self Portrait, age 9 (2021), the artist is represented by a teddy bear, games and a children’s book, symbols of youth that are soon replaced at age 14 with indications of maturity like a training bra and Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar. As the artist matured, so did the items that represented her. By age 21, her self portrait consists of a red bra, lipstick and a pink vibrator along with a copy of Zadie Smith’s novel White Teeth. For her present-day self portrait at age 34, Buckwalter chose more obscure items like an open Swiss army knife and a pill bottle. This fourth work is the only one without a book. Instead, Buckwalter has included an iPhone and a blank notepad, perhaps a nod to her becoming an artist and writer.

Self Portrait, Age 34, Anne Buckwalter, 2021, gouache on panel. Courtesy the artist and Rachel Uffner Gallery.

Throughout her paintings, Buckwalter weaves imagery related to domesticity and craft, inspired by her childhood in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and the aesthetic of Pennsylvania Dutch folk art. In Time Out (2021) she painted a rustic, red room adorned with a pastoral painting and an embroidered sampler on the wall, a nod to the popular colonial craft to teach young girls lessons like needlework. The old-fashioned, rural decor is sparse and clean, the only item out of place is what appears to be a braided whip used as a sex toy. The title alludes to rule breaking and punishments, both in the sense of giving a child a time out, as well as in sexual role play.

Time Out, Anne Buckwalter, 2021, gouache on panel. Courtesy the artist and Rachel Uffner Gallery.

Similar to Time Out, Buckwalter imbued irony in the title Jugs, which could refer either to the vases or breasts on prominent display. Ironic twists continually pop up in her works, like in Snowed In, which shows a cozy living room with a large window looking out onto a white, snowy day. A fire sits ready to be lit and a red glove is propped upright on a chair. Next to the chair the artist has painted black stiletto boots with bright red laces, which would be futile in the snow, but allude to use for more erotic interior activities.

Snowed In, Anne Buckwalter, 2021, gouache on panel. Courtesy the artist and Rachel Uffner Gallery.

As much as Buckwalter’s works are personal, they are also in many ways collective memories. Recognizing the sex toys and understanding the double entendre requires the viewer to bring to the work their own sexual histories. An invitation to join in on the risqué secrets, Buckwalter’s paintings are a celebration of maturation and the primal acts that happen behind closed doors.

Clean Linens is on view at Rachel Uffner Gallery through October 30, 2021