ART:
NOW THROUGH OCTOBER 14
Crest Foods
Sargent’s Daughters; Brandi Twilley

Long before she became known as a painter, Brandi Twilley supported herself by cleaning the bathrooms and aisles of a local grocery store chain in her hometown and current base of Oklahoma City. The experience offered her ample time to observe and sketch her coworkers, and while brief, left such an impression that nearly two decades later, the artist decided to memorialize it in more than 40 small-scale oil paintings. The series—now on view at Sargent’s Daughters in New York City—is infused with enough melancholy to almost feel dystopic; the prices aren’t the only thing that, to borrow a phrase from the company’s slogan, appear to have hit “rock bottom.” And yet, it’s not all doom and gloom. Elements such as the title The Last Chicken Nugget Meal convey a dark sense of humor, and while almost universally dead-eyed, her former coworkers come across not as caricatures, but as (relatably) human.

THIS MONTH: OCTOBER 2023

THIS MONTH: OCTOBER 2023