
Dominique Fung challenged Katherina Olschbaur to equal her in painting the largest canvas to which she ever set brush. Olschbaur accepted. Each of the monumental works is a case study in its respective author’s practice. Fung begins with measured, thoughtfully rendered sketches on her gessoed surfaces, then loosens-up as the forms breathe their first earthy-toned breaths; Olschbaur improvises at first, then reins-in and articulates her subjects as they discover their voices in a technicolor gravity that defies Newton.
Both canvases radiate outward from a mysterious central figure and flex a sort of soft power to contain the ensuing chaos without diminishing its energy. Like much of her recent work, Olschbaur grounds “Dom’s Arc,” 2021, in references to the violent, erotically-charged biblical paintings that flourished in the Renaissance. A stormy horizon line bisects the northern and southern hemispheres of the piece, the vibrant reds and pinks above serve to illuminate the darker, dirtier blues, lavenders, and greys below. Coupled horses and erotic dancers spring forth away from Dom (Olschbaur’s gender-reversed Noah) and a female partner, and charge the viewer. The absence of men sensually subverts the traditional understanding of the ark, and hints that this cruise was more about pleasure than procreation.
While Olschbaur’s work dances with the destabilization of Judeo-Christian lust and expectation, Fung thrives in the creation of contemporary allegories for ancient objects, and encourages new metaphysical understandings of their value and purpose. Two huntresses center “The Control of Fire,” 2021, bows drawn and at the ready, one figure almost completely obscured by her hair or a long veil. Each is rendered in an earthy palette that diffuses light and enables focus.Their hunt has already been successful. A stuck sparrow is suspended face-down, the arrows that killed it butted by a ceramic vessel. Five disembodied hands suspend a net with dead geese, gathered mushrooms, and other bounty. Like Olschbaur, Fung delights in unsettling faulty conventional wisdom: archaeologists have documented that women have hunted without male counterparts throughout history.
My Kingdom and a Horse is an exhibition of ten major works by two young painters just beginning to recognize that the kingdoms of their talents have no borders. It is a celebration of shared ambition, collaboration, and splendid painting.
Dominique Fung (b. 1987, Ottawa, Canada) lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. She received a BAA from Sheridan College Institute of Technology in Toronto, Canada. Recent exhibitions include It’s Not Polite to Stare, Jeffrey Deitch, New York, United States (2021, solo); PAPA RAGAZZE!, Nicodim Gallery, Los Angeles, United States (2020); Relics and Remains, Nicodim Gallery, Los Angeles, USA (2020, solo); Friends and Friends of Friends: Artistic Communities in the Age of Social Media, Schlossmuseum, Linz, Austria (2020); Good Pictures (curated by Austin Lee), Jeffrey Deitch, New York, USA (2020); Skin Stealers, Nicodim Gallery, Los Angeles, USA (2020); Wash Your Corners, Ross + Kramer, New York, New York, United States (2019, solo); Looking Backward, Moving Forward, Taymour Grahne, London, United Kingdom (2019, solo).
Katherina Olschbaur (b.1983, Bregenz, Lake Constance, Austria) lives and works in Los Angeles, California. Olschbaur graduated from the University of Applied Arts, Vienna, Austria. Recent exhibitions include Night Blessings, Union Pacific, London (2021, solo), Tortured Ecstasies, Nicodim Gallery, Los Angeles (2020, solo); Dirty Elements, Contemporary Arts Center Gallery, UC Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA (2020, solo); Hollywood Babylon, Jeffrey Deitch, Nicodim, AUTRE Magazine, Los Angeles, CA (2020); The Divine Hermaphrodite, GNYP Gallery, Berlin, Germany (2019, solo); and Horses, Nicodim Gallery, Los Angeles, USA (2018, solo). In 2021, she was selected for Kehinde Wiley’s Black Rock residency in Dakar, Senegal.