Gwendolyn Zabicki: Enrobed

Goldfinch is thrilled to present Enrobed, our first exhibition with Chicago-based painter Gwendolyn Zabicki. The exhibition's opening reception will be held on Sunday, November 10th from 2-5pm (the artist will be in attendance) and will be on view through December 21st.

“I think it was 2008 or 2009 that I noticed that everything at the grocery store was 'enrobed' in chocolate. Not 'dipped' or 'dunked' or simply 'covered' anymore, now everything had this great, fanciful word attached to it. Enrobed. The word just stuck around in my mind for a while. What else was enrobed and why?

The first painting in the series came from an old upholstered couch that someone had put in their backyard and used all summer long. Fall, then winter came and one day it snowed and a perfect, unmarred blanket of snow fell on that couch. It looked like you could lift it up and sleep under it. It was enrobed. It was beautiful. When people ask me what my show is about, I say, "it's things covered by things." Things can be covered by accident (like the sidewalk in Tears of a Spiderman), but sometimes it's to protect (Birthday Cake) or keep warm. Sometimes it's for comfort, for pleasure (Too Hot, The Swimmer) or for vanity (Dye Job). Sometimes it's to hide something a little bit naughty (Boys Smoking a Joint). Sometimes whole places and people can be enrobed in darkness (Paletas, Bike Ride (Drunk), or, as in Hammock, blissfully enrobed in nature.

When I made the Boys Smoking a Joint painting I saw them huddled in a circle and knew immediately what they were doing though I never did see the joint. I asked them if I could make a painting of them and they very graciously recreated the pose for me. I told them about my show coming up and said that usually when you have an idea, the first couple versions of it aren't that good, but the longer you stick with it, the stranger and more interesting versions of it start to come forward. What happens when you take an absurd idea and just keep going with it? Take it as far as you can?

One of my favorite books is Baron In The Trees. It's about a boy who climbs a tree to evade punishment from his parents and never comes down. That's the whole book. He lives his whole life up there. It's wonderful. I won't spoil the ending for you if you haven't read it, but it's a perfect ending. The last painting in the series is a grave. As of this writing, I haven't finished it yet. But it seemed like a fitting end. It's a thing covered by a thing and a grave seems like it does the same thing as a painting. It's a rectangle that says I once existed and if you happened to have known me you'll know that there is more to it than that.” -- Gwendolyn Zabicki

Artist's Bio:

Gwendolyn Zabicki is a painter from Chicago. She earned her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2005 and her MFA from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2012. Her latest solo show opens November 2024 at Goldfinch Gallery. Previously, her work has shown at White Columns, Anastasia Tinari Projects, Goldfinch Gallery, Heaven Gallery, Slow Gallery, Roman Susan, Comfort Station, the Hyde Park Art Center, Gallery 400, and the Bauhaus Universität in Weimar, Germany. She was selected for the 2022 Midwest edition of New American Paintings, issue 161. In 2020, she was named a Breakout Artist by NewCity Magazine. Her work has been reviewed in the Chicago Reader, the Chicago Tribune, and she has appeared on the Bad At Sports podcast. She has curated exhibitions at Heaven Gallery, the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, the Riverside Arts Center, the College of DuPage and the Illinois State Museum. She has taught painting and drawing at the Hyde Park Art Center, Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill, and the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Image: Bike Ride (Drunk), 2024, oil on canvas, 30 x 24 inches (76.2 x 61 cm)