Sargent’s Daughters is pleased to present Lover’s Eye, featuring works by ten artists all in the format of miniatures.

Lover’s eyes were tokens of affection exchanged between intimates in Georgian England, which, as their name suggests, featured a close-up portrait of the eye of the giver. Radically cropped and often ornately bejeweled, they were a discreet way of keeping the gaze of one’s beloved close at hand. Today, lover’s eyes remain mysterious; due to their private nature and limited imagery, they are often a challenge for art historians to identify.

These historical portraits serve as a point of departure for the exhibition. Although the works on view vary widely in material, style, and content, they all address themselves to some object of affection, be it human, idea, or affective experience. These small-scaled artworks condense memories and emotions into talismans, touchstones, amulets, or keepsakes. As minute objects intended for intimate viewing, they have the capacity to transform the relationship between artist and viewer into something akin to lover and beloved.

Alex Anderson (b. 1990, Seattle, WA) uses the delicate medium of ceramics as his main vehicle to explore the intersections of the sublime experiences that make up both the man-made and natural worlds, as well as deeper, more complicated issues of race and cultural representation. His artworks combine a dexterity in the medium with a confluence of baroque imagery and compositions, Japanese pop art references, and current contemporary fashion and design trends in order to probe the depths of reality, illusion and identity.

For over five decades Dotty Attie (b. 1938, Pennsauken, NJ) has rigorously engaged the grid as a formal and conceptual tool. Her cadenced rows of 6 x 6-inch canvases employ strategies of minimalism, appropriation, and feminism by decontextualizing and sequencing canonical Old Master paintings, Modern photographs, and Hollywood promotional imagery. Attie then bookends or interviews bold-faced text panels that annotate her evocative images with sardonic narration. Populated with heroes, villains and everyone in between, Attie’s witty tales of crime and punishment imbue even the most neutral images with eroticism, violence and psychological imbalance. Attie was born in Pennsauken, New Jersey and lives and works in New York City.

Luke Edward Hall is an English artist and designer. Luke’s philosophy is shaped by his love of storytelling and fantasy. His colourful work is often inspired by history, filtered through a lens of irreverent romanticism.

Tony Feher was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1956, and raised in Corpus Christi, Texas, with early stops in Florida and Virginia. He received a BA from The University of Texas, and resided in New York City. Feher’s work can be found in important international public collections including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and The Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois.

Terri Friedman was born in Colorado, educated in Rhode Island, India, and Los Angeles. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally. She lives with her family in the Bay Area and are an Associate Professor at the California College of the Arts.

Sergio Miguel (b. 1992, Mexicali, Mexico) received his B.A. in Art History in 2014 and his M.F.A. in Studio Art from Columbia University in 2021. Solo exhibitions include Army of Angels at Deli Gallery in 2022. Recent group shows include De Por Vida curated by Ken Castaneda at Company Gallery in 2021, and The Fool at 8th House Projects in Mexico City in 2022.

Cara Nahaul (b. 1987, London, UK) is an artist living and working in London. She did a BA (Hons) Fine Art and History of Art at Goldsmiths University, London and then an MFA Fine Art at Parsons The New School for Design, New York. Recent solo exhibitions include Taymour Grahne Projects (London). Group exhibitions include Alexander Berggruen Gallery (New York), The Hole (New York and Los Angeles).

Los Angeles-based artist Fay Ray (b. 1978, Riverside, CA) explores the fetishization of objects and the construction of female identity through high-contrast, monochrome photomontages and metallic sculpture. For her three-dimensional works, Fay Ray compiles cast aluminum objects, bored volcanic rocks, wire, chain, and natural materials into suspended sculptural masses. Conflating worlds of worship and desire, the works across mediums borrow from the symbolism and composition of traditional religious relics and the visual language of the occult. Ray’s sculptures and collages hint at the presence of a rematerialized body through a mysterious yet systematic organization of abstract form.

Karen Seapker’s paintings have been featured at museums and galleries in the U.S. and internationally. Her paintings allude to the power of human relationships, our connections to nature, and the passage of time. She received her MFA from Hunter College in New York, NY. Her work has been exhibited in shows at James Cohan Gallery in NYC and Shanghai, The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, PA, and California College of the Arts. Her work was included in Crystal Bridges Museum’s survey of contemporary art, State of the Art 2020. Her work is in various private collections as well as the collection of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Reviews of her work have been in publications including Burnaway, Hyperallergic, and ArtForum. She lives and works in Nashville, TN.

Betty Tompkins (b. 1945, Washington, D.C.) is an artist living and working in New York, NY, and Pleasant Mount, PA. Recent solo exhibitions include Women Words, Phrases, and Stories, The Flag Art Foundation, New York, NY (2016); Real Ersatz, FUG, The Bruce High Quality Foundation, New York, NY (2015); Art Basel Feature, Galerie Rodolphe Janssen, Basel, Switzerland (2014); Paintings & Works on Paper 1972-2013, Gavlak Gallery, Palm Beach, FL (2014); Woman Words, Dinter Fine Art, Project room #63, New York, NY (2013); Fuck Paintings, Galerie Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels, Belgium (2012); among others.