ART CITIES:Los Angeles-Sophia Narrett
Known for her elaborately embroidered shaped canvases, the New York based artist Sophia Narrett weaves together spatially unfolding narratives of desire and sexuality. Each work invites the viewer to engage alongside it in a transcendent exercise of introspection, where the pursuit of sustained love is in concert with the search for the self.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Kohn Gallery Archive
Sophia Narrett presents her most recent works in her exhibition “Soul Kiss” at Kohn Gallery in Los Angeles. Exploring topics of role play, the emotional results of escapism and the evolving nature of identity, Narrett’s process of embroidery is both slow and careful. Each stitch is a painstaking practice of self-reflection that emphasizes the power of the human touch. At the same time, Narrett’s approach to conceptualizing her designs is inherently unconscious. “It’s always a process of fantasy and making the images I want to see, the process is cathartic” Narrett explains. “As I work through the image, I look back and see what’s going on there, and what are the deeper social implications, how is it engaging with the world outside itself”. The smaller works show human encounters at closer range. In “Sweethearts” the first piece Narrett created for the show, a nude female figure hugs a clothed man, all while straddling a mailbox, as if delivering a particularly zealous valentine. “I’m interested in what happens when one figure is clothed and one is nude,” Narrett explained. “Does it imply that one figure is in control, or is it more complicated than that? When is it control and when is it worship?” While evocative of Hieronymus Bosch’s densely illustrative worlds of the 16th Century, Narrett’s work is simultaneously in dialogue with the feminist art movement of the 1970s. With its foundations in textile and craft, Narrett’s work explores these canons and decorative history of her medium as it relates to her feminine psyche. Fueled by a fascination with human prurience, Narrett’s erotic imaginations unravel some of our most intimate bonds with each other, speaking beneath its surface and ultimately tying back to human connection. Narrett’s seductive tangles of surreal compositions repurpose colloquial imagery from the Internet and pop culture. Her wall works are woven with vulnerability and satire as they ruminate about a postmodern existence. These often explicit scenes unveil her internal contemplations while contributing to a broader commentary on gender, obsession with images, and the collective unconscious. Her material approach to confronting corporeal desire– and divulging the darker aspects of relationships– shrouds layers of affliction under fabrics of lavish beauty. Soul Kiss articulates the energies that exist between people and how our desires bring us together.
Photo: Sophia Narrett, Whisper Like a Magnet (detail), 2020, Embroidery thread, aluminum and fabric, 33 x 40 inches, © Sophia Narrett, Courtesy the artist and Kohn Gallery
Info: Kohn Gallery, 1227 North Highland Avenue, Los Angeles, Duration: 13/11/2020-15/1/2021, Days & Hours: Mon-Fri 10:00-18:00, Sat 11:00-18:00 (Timed reservations are required), www.kohngallery.com
