Alayna Coverly: Find Me at VillageOneArt will encounter subtle identities and bold swaths of fabric tumbling, unencumbered, across the surfaces of Coverly’s compositions. Recontextualizing Surrealist imagery and Baroque tones within the subject matter of her work, Coverly takes on figuration from a freshly unique perspective in her provocative paintings.

The power of Coverly’s images in this solo presentation is found in their decisive fragmentation: exposed arms jut forth toward the foreground of the painting and calves curl around a swirling tumble of human activity. Where Coverly reveals the figures in her paintings, she simultaneously evokes their actions as scintillating or forbidden: thus, calling into question what occurs when we are in heightened emotional states.

The contrast between the decadent volume of cascading fabric and stark naked limbs brings to mind wealth and power and how these forces are exerted relative to bodies - particularly, women’s bodies. Coverly pursues a frank and elucidating examination of sexuality and its pitfalls in her work: by hiding that which the viewer most anticipates seeing, the artist turns the element of nudity in classical paintings against expectations. In works such as “Yours and Mine” (featured above) the artist depicts grappling in the manner of any Renaissance depiction of a Greek myth, draping her figures in exorbitant cloths and framing the entire scene in a passionate shade of reddish pink.

In the artist’s other works, such as “For You,” the viewer can identify a figure’s head against a wallpaper-style pattern. Rather than admiring the figure’s features, however, one gazes at folds of red fabric draped tightly around the head of the subject. By adopting a hue of fabric the same color as the wallpaper for her figure, Coverly makes thinly veiled references to blending in, or to ideas of gaslighting present in feminist literature such as Charlotte Perkins Gillman’s infamous feminist tale, The Yellow Wallpaper. Coverly styles her figures as both seductive and off-putting, embracing a carefully honed painting style as a result of her robust artistic studies to frame vulnerability and identity.

Founded in 2018, VillageOneArt is a women-led contemporary art space founded by gallerist Vivienne Yang and curator Christy Qin in the neighborhood of Chelsea, NYC, showcasing works from local and international artists of diverse backgrounds. The gallery’s foundational principles are established upon exploring the infinite bounds of human imagination through expansive and innovative mediums.VillageOneArt Gallery serves as a necessary bridge between art and the public sphere, with a soul reflecting the evolving spirit of our era. Each exhibition sparks a temporal and cultural dialogue, inviting rich reflection and thought-provoking perspectives.