Jeremy Stenger's Pareidolic Paintings at Kristen Lorello Gallery

Jeremy Stenger presented five monochrome paintings at Kristen Lorello's gallery from April 23 to June 1, 2019. Located at 195 Chrystie Street in New York City, the installation created a chapel-like atmosphere with two paintings on each side and one opposite the door. The works feature overlapping imagery of flora, faces, and fingers built through layers of paint that are sanded away, revealing rough edges that hint at intense artistic labor. These mostly black and gray compositions invite viewers to experience pareidolia, where the mind projects coherent forms onto abstract patterns. One painting in lighter gray tones suggests dusk, with buried layers of toxic-looking yellow and pink emerging. Stenger's botanical elements recall William Morris's 19th-century arsenic-based wallpapers while maintaining a dreamy quality akin to Chinese ink landscapes. Visual precursors include Anna Atkins's botanical cyanotypes and Wilhelm Roentgen's X-rays, both from the 19th century. The paintings resemble X-rays with white outlines on dark grounds, projecting ghostly presences that explore mental interiors. Stenger's process creates spirit-filled visions of night gardens where perspective fragments, blending human presence with natural landscapes. The works accumulate cultural and personal memory in dense, geological layers, functioning as elegiac shrines to the natural world.