Love is a song that never ends. —Bambi
Wainscott, NY – After participating in several group exhibitions at Tripoli Gallery, Lucy Winton is showing a series of mixed media work in, Some Enchanted Evening, her first solo show with the gallery. The title of the exhibition is borrowed from a song written by Rogers and Hammerstein in 1949 and popularized by Perry Cuomo and Frank Sinatra. The artist connects to the song, which describes two star-crossed lovers meeting one evening and casting a spell on each other only to be separated, due to her own interest in the magic of the nocturnal. Having an in-depth fascination with fairy tales, cartoons, and Rococo master Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Winton uses these cultural and historic references as tools from her inventory, to tell stories all her own.
Time seems to stand still and also move in precarious ways when observing her artwork. The tapestries that she often uses have been sourced from various locations and become blank canvases of sorts. However, each tapestry carries an undeniable history in its threads. With acrylic, oil paint, and embroidery as her mediums of choice, removing shapes to create a negative space, could also be looked at as a painterly gesture. This is true with Cameo (2023), shown above, a tapestry work that has been cut, embroidered, and painted on. The result is an amalgamation of time, a moment of whimsy, curiosity, and mystique. Winton’s Cameo, can be defined by its outline when the jewelry from which it is based is known mostly for its dimension as a Bas-relief. A form of glyptography, the cameo in this work has been reduced to silhouette form and yet is strong and perhaps even more meaningful in its dimensional absence.
For her exhibition at Tripoli Gallery, the artist brings together a body of work made as early as 2004 (Titian Stump, encaustic wax, and oil paint on Masonite board) through today. While some of the mediums change, the revelry of her Enchanted Evening remains the same. Winton’s interest in visual escapism started in childhood through her fascination with verdant landscapes in children’s book stories. Some Enchanted Evening presents the opportunity to escape with her…and through her. In a world that she makes filled with Jungian and anthropomorphic Disney references, joy ensues, and those nocturnal lovers are finally reunited.
~Katy Diamond Hamer
Lucy Winton received an MFA from the New York Academy of Art and a BA from the University of California at Santa Cruz. Winton became immersed in drawing while studying at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. She has exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions at the Parrish Art Museum, Watermill, NY; Center for Contemporary Printmaking, Norwalk, CT; Flag Art Foundation, New York, NY; and Southampton Arts Center, Southampton, NY. Lucy Winton has been included in 5 group exhibitions with Tripoli Gallery and lives and works in Wainscott, NY.