Purple Art
[September 19 2022]
“LOTUS OF NEPHTHYS” AN EXHIBITION BY TALI LENNOX AT GALERIE SÉBASTIEN BERTRAND
Presenting thirteen paintings by the British painter Tali Lennox, the exhibition Lotus of Nephthys knits together still lifes and sibylline portraits of supernatural women slithering through occult environs and objects. Caught in moments of undress, Lennox’s protagonists are instruments of ritual and esoteric performance––entering alternate dimensions, charming serpents, practicing witchcraft from within mirrors and Victorian bed chambers.
In her ruminations on the potency of the female form, Lennox depicts a menagerie of glistening glasses and porcelain vessels––offering them as talismans for divination. The artist likewise conceives of the body as a conduit for spiritual transcendence and physical metamorphosis. The theological doctrine of transubstantiation, for instance, is usurped by the female mystic.
In these paintings, religious votives and scripture are transfigured by pagan rites and dark magic. In this way, the miracle of rebirth and the messianic second coming are forestalled. Episodes of sacrificial death, self-mutilation, and sorrow wrought by wayward ecclesiastics and mythical hybrids inspire a subaltern world that summons the shades alongside the heavens.
On view from September 15th until November 5th, 2022 at Galerie Sébastien Bertrand.
16 Rue du Simplon. 1207 Geneva, Switzerland.
Text by Megan Kincaid
Photos by Annik Wetter
Images courtesy of the artist and Galerie Sébastien Bertrand
