Alake Shilling
Alake Shilling’s solo exhibition, The Hippest Trip in America – By Land, Air and Sea, runs until October 30, 2021 at Jeffrey Deitch New York. The title comes from Nelson George’s 2014 book on the prominent television show Soul Train.
The exhibition features seven paintings in the main Grand Street gallery, and seven ceramic sculptures in the Grand Street storefront. The oil paintings are textured with crumbled Styrofoam, nail polish and glitter. The sculptures and paintings reference pop culture from Shilling’s childhood and embody feelings that are often relegated as abject. Shilling questions such abjections while simultaneously revealing such pre- and overdeterminations when encountering the visual and haptic.