Molly Crabapple
The Chair Series
location: 4 Bond Street, New York
November 11 - December 15, 2023
Opening reception, Saturday, November 11 6 - 8pm
open: Tuesday - Saturday 12 - 6,
Sage Sovereign, 2023 pen, ink, dye, gouache, watercolor, marker, brush, acrylic, pastel on cardboard 40 1/2 x 33 in 102.9 x 83.8 cm
Just two humans, pigment, junk cardboard, eye and hand.
People from all walks of life had their portraits painted by Molly Crabapple, an artist and writer known for documenting extremes: from nightclubs to war zones. The Chair Series is Crabapple's most personal project. Seated in the same chair for the intimate one-on-one sessions in her apartment the sitters and the artist share more than the space. The result is a group of extraordinary images at once loud and poetic.
I painted this series from between the winter of 2022 and the summer of 2023, when the city had finally crawled out from under COVID and all I wanted was the physical presence of other humans. For each portrait, I sat a friend or stranger on a pink velveteen chair that belonged to my great grandmother Rose and drew them for the next five hours. I painted on old packing cardboard, and used any and all materials within grasping distance -- acrylic, gouache, markers, ink, dye, pastel -- and tried to get the softness of the skin, the fall of their bodies, the iron in their eyes. These are fire eaters and sex workers, philosophers and poets, all sprawled out like some opium den dinner party from a New York of my imaginings. There's no tech - even the music I played while I painted was on vinyl - and no reference photos. Just two humans, pigment, junk cardboard, eye and hand.
Molly Crabapple is an artist and writer whose influences include Toulouse Lautrec, Diego Rivera, and Goya's The Disasters of War. Nominated for a National Book Award and three Emmys, her work is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art, the United States Library of Congress, Columbia University, and the New York Historical Society.
Crabapple has reported with words and art on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Lebanese snipers, Guantanamo Bay, the US-Mexican border, Pennsylvania prisoners, New York cabbies, Greek refugee camps, and the ravages of hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. Her work was published in The New York Times, The Guardian, New York Review of Books, The Paris Review, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, and The New Yorker.
Crabapple is the co-author of Brothers of the Gun, an illustrated collaboration with Syrian war journalist Marwan Hisham.
As an award-winning animator, she has pioneered a new genre of live-illustrated journalism, collaborating with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jay Z, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the ACLU.
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Molly Crabapple Asad, 2023 pen, ink, dye, gouache, watercolor, marker, brush, acrylic, pastel on cardboard 30 x 22 1/2 in 76.2 x 57.1 cm |
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Molly Crabapple Yasmin, 2023 pen, ink, dye, gouache, watercolor, marker, brush, acrylic, pastel on cardboard 30 x 41 in 76.2 x 104.1 cm |
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Molly Crabapple Max Fractal, 2023 pen, ink, dye, gouache, watercolor, marker, brush, acrylic, pastel on cardboard 40 x 32 in 101.6 x 81.3 cm |
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Molly Crabapple Nicole, 2023 pen, ink, dye, gouache, watercolor, marker, brush, acrylic, pastel on cardboard 20 1/2 x 21 1/2 in 52.1 x 54.6 cm |
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Molly Crabapple installation view |
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Molly Crabapple Sarah, 2023 pen, ink, dye, gouache, watercolor, marker, brush, acrylic, pastel on cardboard 20 1/2 x 21 1/2 in 52.1 x 54.6 cm |
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Molly Crabapple Mia, 2023 pen, ink, dye, gouache, watercolor, marker, brush, acrylic, pastel on cardboard 20 1/2 x 21 1/2 in 52.1 x 54.6 cm |
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Molly Crabapple Jonah and Noelle, 2023 pen, ink, dye, gouache, watercolor, marker, brush, acrylic, pastel on cardboard 20 1/2 x 21 1/2 in 52.1 x 54.6 cm |
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Molly Crabapple MOLLY CRABAPPLE Cecilia, 2023 pen, ink, dye, gouache, watercolor, marker, brush, acrylic, pastel on cardboard 41 x 30 in 104.1 x 76.2 cm |
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Molly Crabapple MOLLY CRABAPPLE Simona, 2023 pen, ink, dye, gouache, watercolor, marker, brush, acrylic, pastel on cardboard 30 x 41 in 76.2 x 104.1 cm |
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Molly Crabapple Ceilia, 2023 pen, ink, dye, gouache, watercolor, marker, brush, acrylic, pastel on cardboard 41 x 30 in 104.1 x 76.2 cm |
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Molly Crabapple Flynn and Sasha, 2023 pen, ink, dye, gouache, watercolor, marker, brush, acrylic, pastel on cardboard 41 x 24 in 104.1 x 61 cm |
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Molly Crabapple Liara Roux, 2022 pen, ink, dye, gouache, watercolor, marker, brush, acrylic, pastel on cardboard 31 x 21 in 78.7 x 53.3 cm |
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Molly Crabapple Vitya, 2023 pen, ink, dye, gouache, watercolor, marker, brush, acrylic, pastel on cardboard 30 x 20 1/2 in 76.2 x 52.1 cm |
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Molly Crabapple Kieran, 2023 pen, ink, dye, gouache, watercolor, marker, brush, acrylic, pastel on cardboard 20 1/2 x 30 in 52.1 x 76.2 cm |
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Molly Crabapple Omar, 2023 pen, ink, dye, gouache, watercolor, marker, brush, acrylic, pastel on cardboard 19 1/2 x 30 in 49.5 x 76.2 cm |
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Molly Crabapple Fuck Theory, 2023 pen, ink, dye, gouache, watercolor, marker, brush, acrylic, pastel on cardboard 17 1/4 x 26 in 43.8 x 66 cm |
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Molly Crabapple Camille, 2023 pen, ink, dye, gouache, watercolor, marker, brush, acrylic, pastel on cardboard 26 x 17 in 66 x 43.2 cm |