K8 Hardy is “happy to confuse, amuse, and activate” viewers of her art, and her new work created while on residency at Artpace may do just that. Upon entering the white cube gallery, her singular work, a painting counters with its dark organic presence.
The monumental work, June, is suspended upon a building pilar in the center of the gallery. It is a soft sculpture awash with splashes of blacks, blues, and a few hints of colors creating a heavy substrate to absorb light. Periodically, a bit of glitter reflects our gaze within the gestural fluid paint strokes.
June continues Hardy’s work in a series she began in 2020 and it is her third painting. As with each work, Hardy experiments with both material and palette. This work was designed by Hardy in the studio, constructed at a San Antonio car upholstery company, and returned to the studio for a poured paint process by the artist. Consistent within her series is the shape, with a perimeter of elongated soft round edges and small wings, and the dimensions, with a thicker cushion at the middle tapering to a comfortable softness near the edges.
Hardy’s artistic practice evolves as she goes from one medium to another medium in her passion to push that edge of conventional norms and good taste.
