Twilight/Prelude: All Seeing Seneca, Mevlana Lipp, Edgar Serrano, Sydnie Jimenez, Rugiyatou Jallow, Chloe Chiasson

New York, NY: albertz benda is pleased to present Twilight/Prelude, a group exhibition bringing together six artists’ ongoing explorations of the delicate balance between the comfortable and the unsettling. From disarming characters morphing into disturbing forms to serene landscapes taking on a haunting atmosphere, this exhibition offers a glimpse into each artist’s distinctive perspective.

Twilight/Prelude will serve as the debut for the painter-turned-NFT designer, All Seeing Seneca. After years of success as the lead artist for the Bored Ape Yacht Club and as a catalyst for the growth of the crypto space, Seneca will exhibit her paintings in a gallery setting for the first time. In Twilight/Prelude, she will present a suite of new canvases that offer a phantasmal "cosmic horror and candyland" look into an invented world, 'Perils of Sēsē,' through the eyes of her characters Shermicus and Sēsē.

Seneca’s colorfully maximalist paintings will be juxtaposed with the tranquil landscapes of German artist Mevlana Lipp’s compositions. In his works, Lipp creates an 'otherworld' that serves as a physical escape from the chaos of contemporary living; his signature botanic forms offer peace and serenity to the metaphoric figures that exist within his compositions.

NXTHVN-based painter Edgar Serrano is haunted by masks, using them in his work to reveal societal roles and challenge perceptions. Through multiple rendering techniques, such as loose expressionistic brush marks and tightly woven embroidery-like patterns, he deceives the eye, prompting viewers to look deeper at the canvas and within themselves, tracing the psychological parameters of our shared human experience. Delving into notions of race and representation, ceramicist Sydnie Jimenez challenges conventional depictions of brown people with her figurative sculptures of racially ambiguous, rebellious youths. 

The beautiful women in Rugiyatou Jallow’s paintings live in a surrealist dream, often having their eyesight obscured by a disembodied hand, covering, or “protecting” them from reality. These figures contend with themes of identity and belonging, both of which are at the forefront of Chloe Chiasson’s practice. Chiasson’s meticulously painted shaped canvases conjure environments meant to evoke safe spaces for people who, like her, grew up in unwelcome surroundings. Homecoming Queen, 2024, imagines an oversized, creased snapshot of a visibly dejected woman that has been unfolded, revealing two male figures on the periphery of the scene. The holder of this photograph has lovingly kept the photograph in their wallet to shelter the woman from the world. 

Each artist in Twilight/Prelude offers a unique lens through which the intricate interplay of beauty, identity, and the surreal is examined.