Austyn Weiner's Milan Debut Explores Grief and Marriage

Austyn Weiner's first solo exhibition at Galleria Massimodecarlo in Milan, titled 'Something Borrowed, Something Plum,' juxtaposes works created during a period of profound emotional upheaval. The artist, who married and lost her father in quick succession, produced two distinct bodies of work side by side: one channeling grief through purple-hued, hand-painted canvases, the other celebrating marriage with white and gold lace-like forms. Weiner's process involved abandoning brushes for 'Grief One,' using oil sticks and charcoal applied directly with her hands, embedding fragments of her father's eulogy into the painting. The exhibition spans two cycles of work created a year apart, moving from autobiographical themes to landscapes evoking post-apocalyptic California, southern France, and Rajasthan. Key pieces include 'Rewind,' featuring walkman buttons as tombstones for obsolete listening, and 'Womb,' addressing child loss. Weiner describes her practice as automatic, with painting serving as a liminal space for processing fury, sadness, and loss. The show deliberately omits the present, focusing on memory's selective transformation of past events. The artist, who became a painter to listen to music all day, sees the walkman—a gift from her father after surgery—as symbolizing the loss of both a parent and an era. The exhibition runs at Massimodecarlo's Milan space.