Jaqueline Cedar “Tryst”

Shelter

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Shelter presents Jaqueline Cedar’s second solo exhibition with the gallery, Tryst. With her new series of intimately sized paintings, Cedar invites us to dive deep into a placeless and timeless world where the viewer becomes both voyeur and participant.

Cedar’s paintings weave an enigmatic tapestry of dream-like visuals, yet curiously refrain from offering a concrete narrative. The absence of a defined narrative liberates these works, allowing them to transcend the constraints of a singular interpretation. Instead, they leave the audience suspended in a state of profound introspection, encouraging each individual to draw from their own experiences and emotions to find meaning within ethereal forms and ambiguous spaces. Cedar’s mastery lies not in recounting a tale, but in evoking a visceral response that transcends words, compelling us to explore our own subconscious.

Each piece is a portal into a world of vivid imagination, where the artist’s skillful use of color and composition imbues the scene with a sense of otherworldly nostalgia, as if they were plucked from the deepest recesses of memory and self. Cedar’s paintings invite the viewer to meander through mysterious landscapes, where time and space seem to lose their grip, leaving one with a sense of wonder and a lingering feeling that the boundary between dreams and reality is beautifully porous. In Tryst, Cedar captures the subtleties of shared secrets, the unspoken exchanges of desire, and the fleeting, yet profound connections that define our lives.

Jaqueline Cedar was born in Los Angeles, CA and currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. In 2009 she received an MFA in Visual Arts from Columbia University. Recent exhibitions include Long Story Short, New York (2023), Shelter Gallery, New York (2022), Shin Haus, New York (2022), Smoke the Moon, Santa Fe (2022), Ladies Room, Los Angeles (2021), 11 Newel, Brooklyn (2021), Peripheral Space, Los Angeles (2021), Hesse Flatow, New York (2020), Drawer NYC (2020), Field Projects, New York (2020), Underdonk, Brooklyn (2018), and David Risley Gallery Velvet Ropes, Copenhagen (2018). Press includes Artnet, Hyperallergic, Huffington Post, Two Coats of Paint, New American Paintings, Gorky’s Granddaughter, Painters Table, and The Boston Globe.

Cedar’s paintings and drawings address uncanny scenarios where characters engage themselves and one another with sincerity and purpose. Moments of desire, self-reflection, and lack of control motivate postures filled with bravado and vulnerability. In October 2019 Cedar launched the curatorial exhibition program Good Naked Gallery. Projects hover around the intimate and awkward with a focus on work that engages tactility, humor, movement, and play.