Ugly Painting at Nahmad Contemporary Challenges Decorative Norms

A group exhibition at Nahmad Contemporary in New York, curated by critic Dean Kissick and art adviser Eleanor Cayre, explores ugliness as a challenge to 'the decorative, polite, [and] conservative.' The show features works by Jana Euler, Rita Ackermann, Shuriya Davis, Peter Saul, Connor Marie, Mathieu Malouf, and Jared Madere, among others. Euler's monstrous depictions of celebrities like Ed Sheeran and human-animal hybrids force reckonings with beauty standards and celebrity culture. Ackermann's 'Dos and Donts Nurses (United)' (2009) combines gesticulating hands and anguished faces with fashion magazine clippings, while Davis's 'Eventually, We Come to Exist' (2021) presents a haunting mother-and-child portrait. Peter Saul's 'Woman Artist Painting Three Pictures at Once' (2021) is critiqued as a takedown of women's ambition rather than a commentary on patriarchy. Other works, like Connor Marie's 'Pork' (2023) and Mathieu Malouf's 'Untitled' (2023), are seen as conservative parodies lacking innovation. Jared Madere's AI-generated 'You gotta speak with the new generation they crazy' (2023) is noted as a standout. The exhibition runs from June 26 to September 16, 2024.