EXTENDED! Closing Cocktails: Sunday, November 10th, 1-3pm

“In the factory we make cosmetics; in the store we sell hope.” 

Charles Revson, American businessman, co-founder of Revlon

Please join us for Closing Cocktails on Sunday, November 10th from 1 – 3pm!

Karen Mainenti’s solo exhibition, “Message in a Bottle,” at Ground Floor Gallery is an immersive installation transforming the gallery space into an upscale beauty boutique experience, replete with the artist’s altered versions of cosmetics, advertising and signage.

Building on her exploration of the societal expectations of women, Mainenti teases out the vestiges of historic advertising within today’s social media messages of wellness, self-care and identity. This installation will investigate the contradiction of women’s simultaneous embrace and skepticism of beauty products; questions of product efficacy are often eclipsed by the irresistible promise of faith, belief and transformation.

Artwork will include drawings, paintings and sculpture that are inspired by the pricing, marketing messages and containers of women’s cosmetic products, all displayed within a shoplike environment drenched in soft skin-tone hues. Visitors will be invited to participate by contributing their own cosmetic containers to the installation or even commission the artist to draw a “portrait” of their very own favorite product.

(Image: Work In Progress – Karen Mainenti / SpringBreak 2019)

Karen Mainenti has had solo exhibitions of her work at the 2019 SPRING/BREAK Art Show, The Bard Graduate Center Library, The Society for Domestic Museology and Chashama. Select group exhibitions include the Untitled Space, DUMBO Arts Festival, La Bodega Gallery, Trestle Gallery, Guest Spot @ The Reinstitute in Baltimore and the Cornell Museum of Art in Delray Beach, Florida. Her artwork has received coverage in ARTnews, Artnet News, Hyperallergic, Gothamist, Brooklyn Magazine, Gallery Gurls and The Believer Magazine, among others. In 2018 she was an Artist-in-Residence at the Bard Graduate Center Library. Mainenti teaches at The City College of New York.

Read the interview with the artist in this Artspiel feature.

/

See the show & Available Works online HERE 

Photos: Rathkopf Photography