JULY 17 - AUGUST 7, 2016

and still, she grows flowers in her chest

alexandria smith and katherine toukhy

OPENING RECEPTION: sunday, JULY 17, 4:30-7PM

Like Nayyirah Waheed, whose poem A Genocide for Flowers inspired the title for this exhibition, Alexandria Smith’s and Katherine Toukhy’s respective work responds to notions of multiple and developing identities. 

Seemingly light-hearted with its bold colors and cartoonish aesthetics, Alexandria Smith’s paintings rely on the repetitive but fragmented representation of ribbons, shoes, pigtails and dresses to convey an uneasy feeling of almost playful games, set in in liminal spaces that allude to domestic and urban environments. Katherine Toukhy’s wall works are densely layered, hand-drawn collages that compose small and large-scale figures. These characters are built with Islamic and camouflage patterns, orientalist imagery, and evocative landscapes, as if their were growing out of their layered histories and herstories.

Alexandria Smith earned her BFA in Illustration from Syracuse University, MA in Art Education from New York University, and MFA in Painting and Drawing from Parsons The New School for Design. She is the recipient of numerous awards and residencies including, most recently, Yaddo, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, the Virginia A. Myers Fellowship at the University of Iowa and the Fine Arts Work Center Fellowship (2013-15). Her recent exhibitions in New York include a solo exhibit at Scaramouche Gallery and group exhibitions at The Schomburg Center, Thierry Goldberg Gallery and Rush Arts Gallery.

Katherine Toukhy is a Brooklyn-based visual artist working in the studio and in community. She is currently a commissioned artist with the Laundromat Project, to co-create an alternate war monument built out of shared herstories among female Arab im/migrants and U.S. veterans. Some venues that have shown her work include: Skylight Gallery; Welancora Gallery; Charles Wright Museum of African American History; Alwan for the Arts; the Gateway Project; The Arab American National Museum, among other venues. She holds degrees from Massachusetts College of Art and Boston College. She is also participating in “Sheherzade’s Gift” at the Center for Book Arts July 13 through September 24 this summer.

GALLERY HOURS:

Thursday - Sunday, 1 - 6pm, or by appointment. Please email hanne@fivemyles.org, or call 718-783-4438.

DIRECTIONS:

Take 2, 3, or 4 trains to Franklin Avenue. Walk two blocks against the traffic on Franklin. Walk ¾ block to 558 St. Johns Place. FiveMyles is within easy walking distance from the Brooklyn Museum.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

FiveMyles is in part supported by the New York State Council for the Arts, Public Funds from the New York City Dept. of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, Council Member Laurie Cumbo,  The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Foundation, the Shelley and Donald Rubin Foundation, the Perlemeter Foundation, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Joseph Robert Foundation, and the William Talbott Hillman Foundation.