Details:

In this work, the artist draws on her experience as a single parent to illustrate the adult/parent to child/offspring dynamic as one of responsibility and care. The subjects in this composition are anachronistically dressed, which simultaneously reflects and masks the figures' plurality of identities.
Unframed
Signed

① Artwork:

Play House

This painting on paper uses vivid ink brushwork to depict abstracted figures interacting within a garden landscape. The artist draws on her experience as a single parent to illustrate the adult/parent to child/offspring dynamic as one of responsibility and care; at the same time, this work recognizes the complex and dualistic nature of an intimate co-existence, and how both subjects in such a relationship form their identity vis-a-vis each other. The figures in this composition are anachronistically dressed. Therefore, viewers might read the encounter as archaic, or at other times quaint. This fluidity is crucial to the artist, as it simultaneously reflects and masks the figures' plurality of identities. 

This work is part of a series by Hennelly, Beguiling Tedious Hours..., created during the pandemic. The title of the series is a reference to a quote by Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw, and the works respond to the etymology of the word "paradise," which means "enclosed park." These compositions explore the idea of a paradise on earth as a simple garden. Hennelly's work employs pattern, repetition and uncanny color palettes to address prescribed gender roles, the immediacy of painting and the human condition. The artist’s work draws inspiration from tapestries, art history and early modernism.

Specs:

22 inches
30 inches

③ Artist:

Delphine Hennelly

Delphine Hennelly’s paintings address prescribed gender roles and the human condition. The artist’s compositions employ pattern, repetition, and uncanny color palettes while drawing inspiration from tapestries, art history and early modernism. Hennelly’s paintings use characters without any clear biography, anachronistic timelines and theatricality to map out political and social patterns in behavior.

BIO:

Delphine Hennelly received a BFA from Cooper Union in New York City 2002 and an MFA from the Mason Gross School of Visual Arts at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey in 2017. 

Exhibitions of Hennelly’s work have taken place at Massey Klein in New York City; Pt.2 Gallery in Oakland, California; Projet Pangee in Montréal, Canada; and History Lessons, a two-person exhibition with Mimi Jung at Carvalho Park in Brooklyn, New York. The artist made her European debut at Lisa Kandlhofer Gallery in Vienna, Austria in 2019. 

Hennelly is a three-time recipient of the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Award. 

Hennelly’s work has appeared in numerous publications, including ArtMaze Magazine, Nut Publication, New American Paintings and more.

Delphine Hennelly:
Play House, 2022
Sennelier ink on arches paper
30.0 × 22.0 inches /