Ariana Papademetropoulos
He preferred me in fantasy, 2019
Oil on canvas
19 3/4 x 15 3/4 inches (50 x 40 cm)
© Ariana Papademetropoulos
The first thing you notice is the extremely bedazzled, geode and faux fur-covered, petite but fully functional carousel strewn with gem-encrusted, pelted equine furries. It has mirrors and a dismembered dragon and it glimmers and glints in both a gorgeous and horrifying, superlatively over-the-top Vegas rococo kind of way. This work by Raúl de Nieves (who set a similar tone of ecstatic excess with his twist on stained glass windows at the 2017 Whitney Biennial) both beckons and startles. Best to give it a minute, back up and take in the paintings in the first gallery before proceeding.