Annette Wehrhahn Solo Show

Tappeto Volante is thrilled to announce "Comb, as in to Search," a solo exhibition featuring paintings by Annette Wehrhahn from April 28 to June 2, 2024.  

In "Comb, as in to Search," Wehrhahn celebrates the legacy of women abstract painters, imagining a sisterhood of all female abstract painters in conversation with one another. Drawing inspiration from female artists such as Pat Passlof, Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Joan Mitchell, and so many others, Wehrhahn celebrates the foremothers of this tradition, whom she sees as participants in a collective dialogue beyond male-dominated influences. 

Wehrhahn experiments with materials and surface and uses oil paint that she grinds meticulously into safflower oil. Her intimate engagement with materials, including her homemade oil paint, allows her to deepen her understanding of color, resulting in works that are rich in singular hues or limited palettes. By using unconventional tools such as car wash sponges, fingers, DIY cardboard scrapers, and palette knives, she infuses her paintings with a palpable sense of movement and energy, capturing the essence of her lived experience and the implied presence of her body. 

Wehrhahn's exploration of abstraction is further enriched by her childhood spent surrounded by Oriental rugs. The resemblance of her paintings to these textile treasures holds particular significance for Wehrhahn, whose grandfather was an antique dealer specializing in textiles from Afghanistan, Iraq, and Iran. For Wehrhahn, her paintings serve as visual representations of this deeply personal history, encapsulating the essence of the rugs that once filled her home and carrying within them the spirit of the anonymous women whose hands crafted them. Each paint stroke on these canvases is a testament to the legacy of creativity, resilience, and connection that flows through her family's lineage. 

Her paintings echo the aesthetics of textiles and rugs emerging organically on each side of the canvas, creating a fringe reminiscent of the care given to combing a child's hair or tending to the strands of a tapestry. Once hung on the wall, the painting's fringes take on the appearance of a rug or tapestry, with their warp and weft delicately dangling. Thick layers of oil paint intertwine with the canvas, echoing its woven texture, while unbound edges evoke a sense of unraveling narratives.

Wehrhahn's abstract paintings serve as symbolic mirrors of the self, offering glimpses into the complexities of lived experiences through color, gesture, form, and material. In a world consumed by identity politics, her artworks transcend the limitations of figural representation, inviting viewers to explore the depths of human emotion and consciousness.

Annette Wehrhahn (b. 1976 River Vale, NJ) lives and works between New York City and Kingston, New York. Wehrhahn’s work has been exhibited internationally in Copenhagen, Denmark, Milan, and Luxembourg at the Ceyson & Benetiere Gallery. She has had numerous exhibitions across the United States, Canada, Horton Gallery, Safe Gallery, and recently at Halsey McKay in East Hampton, NY. In 2010, she co-founded the artist-run space Soloway, where she curated exhibitions and acted as director until 2021. Wehrhahn received a BFA in Printmaking from the Rhode Island School of Design and an MFA in Painting from Bard College.