A Plexiglass Proscenium | 2/08 - 4/30, 2024
ONLINE PRESENTATION
with artwork by members Christian Bañez, Caroline Heffron, Holly Overton, Tricia Townes, and Noelle Velez
PARADICE PALASE is excited to present A Plexiglass Proscenium, curated by co-founder Lauren Hirshfield. As our platform continues to highlight new artworks from the current cohort of our membership, Hirshfield selects five artists whose use of figuration and figurative language connect to form a surrealist narrative tableau. Observation meets self-reflection; the mirror of avatar and ego is met with illustrious strokes, and the viewpoint into each image’s world toggles between external and internal. We watch the story, we are the story, looking out and in and out again. We are both the viewer and the participant in this eccentric lexicon; the gardener and the garden, the heroine and the fable, the tourist and the attraction, the cause and effect… Perhaps a moral to this tale: whether in moments of discomfort, curiosity, exploration, discovery, or celebration, the characters in this collection of works - and the symbols that inform their stories - are united by a desire for goodness. And we as viewers become enraptured, at the edge of our seats, by their journey.
Our exhibitions are best viewed and enjoyed on a desktop.
Christian Bañez, key lime spotlight
Noelle Velez, Lily and Woody Nightshade
Christian Bañez, just in the etherea
Caroline Heffron, Something Borrowed
Caroline Heffron, Echo Chamber
Holly Overton, Smooth Move
Tricia Townes, Blue Mother
Christian Bañez, good morning
Noelle Velez, Gold Bar
Holly Overton, Household (triptych)
Noelle Velez, Apple Bottom Jeans (Boots with the Fur)
Noelle Velez, Flower
Christian Bañez, it comes apart but that’s ok
Tricia Townes, Still Life with Ice Cream and Potato Chips (After Velasquez and Cadmus)
Caroline Heffron, Remote Sensors
Tricia Townes, Ring Shout Dancers (study)
Noelle Velez, Leda
Tricia Townes, Mr. Carl Stewart, Bluesman
Caroline Heffron, Storage Room
Holly Overton, Somadic Residual (diptych)
Tricia Townes, Rest Break in the Community Garden
Caroline Heffron, Treasure Hunt
Caroline Heffron, Alibi
Christian Bañez, i know a place
Noelle Velez, Vaulting
Noelle Velez, Acrobats
Meet the artists
Christian Bañez is an artist and writer based in Brooklyn, NY. His work explores intersections of identity, examination of relationships, and personal introspection. Combining images from his camera roll, memory, and imagination, Christian creates a personal narrative showcasing the things he cherishes while trying to answer the question - “what is a contemporary life?”
Bañez received a BFA in Painting from Missouri Western State University. He completed residencies with the New York Academy of Art, ECAASSU (East Coast Asian American Student Union), and the Bischoff Inn. He's exhibited work throughout the country, including with Charlotte Street Foundation (Kansas City, MO), Visible Records (Charlottesville, VA), and Hawthorn Contemporary (Milwaukee, WI). Christian currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY; he has been a PARADICE PALASE member since 2023.
Caroline Otis Heffron uses layered images to create imaginative spaces that question the relationships between women’s bodies, memory, belonging and cultural objects. The women are often interpretations of archetypal personas that Heffron identifies with, such as the lost wanderer, the collector, and the creator. The paintings build dualistic conversations through her experiences of being vulnerable yet needing to be strong, remembering to be present but imagining the future, and community allyship yet feeling alone. The compressed compositions invite new dialogues about the contemporary identities of goddesses, food sellers, buskers, and consumers of culture. Heffron’s paintings become theatrical tableaux that, through a lack of spatial depth and high chroma colors, highlight her invented worlds where characters and narratives explore time travel, dreams, and disorientation. The scenes commemorate workers, muses, prize holders, drinkers, and art viewers in a connected choreography where contemporary spaces and ancient symbols mingle.
Heffron graduated with an MFA from the School of Visual Arts. Her paintings have been shown at SPRING/BREAK Art Show, Studioninedee, Kent State University, Long Island University, and La Mama La Galleria among others. She currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY; she has been a PARADICE PALASE member since 2022.
Holly Overton is a representational oil painter whose neo-surrealist images depict intimate moments with the natural features of the barrier islands of North Carolina and the concerning environmental changes happening there. A native to the coastal region of the state, Overton borrows visual cues of the tourist industry in her works, which sell a dreamy façade yet are simultaneously an active agent in its own destruction. This focus is a microcosm of the middle class, revealing both the profiteers’ and consumers’ contrived avoidance. At large, Overton’s interdisciplinary practice challenges consumer culture’s obsession and denial of facades. She utilizes oil painting, video installation, narrative short film and musical composition as tools to explore marketed sentimentality and environmental concerns, stemming from her upbringing in a rural beach town.
Overton received her BFA from Parsons School of Design in 2009. She has exhibited at Dia Chelsea and Schema Projects. She was recently the subject of a three woman exhibition, Her Ironic World, at Dare Arts in Manteo (NC) in 2022. Other recent exhibitions include Do Not Research curated by Josh Citarella at Lower Cavity in Holyoke (MA), and After the Fall Comes Love or The Shadow Society curated by Haley Hughes at Bushel Collective in Delhi (NY). Her video work was screened in New York City Symphonies of the Millennium Film Workshop at the Museum of Modern Art (NY) in 2022. She has composed, recorded and toured internationally in art rock bands since 2005. She was a 2022 Summer Artist in Residence with her band at Millennium Film Workshop. Holly currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY; she has been a PARADICE PALASE member since 2023.
Tricia Townes makes work to heal herself and others. Her goal is to universalize common experiences of dysfunction and unease in order to heal them. Specifically, Townes produces psychological portraits of friends and family members, socially engaged artworks, and compositions of designs from marginalized cultures that position them as first-class US citizens. Townes has an MFA from UNC-Greensboro. She has exhibited in Miami, New York, and Chicago. Townes has also participated in residencies at Skowhegan, The Fine Arts Work Center, and MassMoCA, among others. Tricia currently lives and works in Nashville, Tennessee; she has been a PARADICE PALASE member since 2021.
Noelle Velez is a painter and mixed media artist with a focus on high chroma watercolors and exuberant richness and sometimes uncomfortable truth of imagery found in the subconscious. Noelle graduated from SUNY Purchase in 2018 and attended the Yale Norfolk Summer Session in 2017. She has shown work across the tri-state region, including in two presentations at the SPRING/BREAK Art Show, Field Projects, Underdonk, and Below Grand. Her debut solo show Overpowered By Your Tulpa was presented at As of Now Gallery (Brooklyn, NY) in 2020. Noelle currently lives and works in NY, NY; she has been a PARADICE PALASE member since 2023.