Unbeknownst to much of the art world, ceramicist and painter
Elisabeth Kley and downtown drag star and contemporary artist
Tabboo! have been friends and collaborators for more than a decade.
The two team up for a show at Gordon Robichaux this fall, and Kley
VќLYZHUL_JS\ZP]LWYPU[MVY[OLSH[LZ[Cultured Commission.
216 culturedmag.com
I spend hours in museums obsessively photographing anything I might use. When I get back to work after an epic trip—like
the one I took last year to Rome and Naples—I begin by making drawings from the photos that catch my eye and then move the motifs
into ceramics and wall paintings. I've found inspiration in sources including Coptic and Islamic textiles, Fortuny and Wiener Werkstätte
design and South Pacific tapa cloth. Right now, I'm concentrating on Greece and Rome, mixed in with ancient Egypt. Men with Grapes
is based on an image of a grape arbor on the shoulder of a vessel in the National Etruscan Museum in Rome. I'll be painting a whole
room for my two-person show with Tabboo! at Gordon Robichaux this fall—maybe I will put a similar border of grapes and leaves up near
the ceiling. Last spring I saw a wonderful show about the influence of antiquity on Léon Bakst and the Ballet Russes. I like to think I'm
contributing to that lineage.
—Elisabeth Kley
VESSEL TO THE PAST
Men with Grapes (2018), silkscreen print, 12 1/8 x 16 5/8 in, Edition of 15 + 5 AP
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Available on
1stdibs.com/dealers/cultured-commissions
COURTESY
CANADA
AND
GORDON
ROBICHAUX,
NY