NOVEMBER 12 – DECEMBER 30, 2024

Exhibition Opening with the Artists
Tuesday, November 12, 5 - 7 PM

SOCO Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of In a Wave, a two-person exhibition with new paintings and works on paper by artists Holly Coulis and Clare Grill. The gallery will host a public opening reception with the artists on Tuesday, November 12th from 5:00 – 7:00 PM. This will be Coulis’ second exhibition with SOCO Gallery and Grill’s first.

Coulis’ compositions reference traditional still life painting with her own abstracted twist. Thick lines and bright colors carefully define objects, providing viewers a glimpse into someone’s personal effects. Coulis’ lines lead the eye on a winding and unpredictable journey, filling them with movement and “giving them radiant, vibrational auras.” (Artsy, 2020) 

In Vase and Bowl Waves, Coulis overlaps the shapes of two objects with fluid lines, outlining them in different colors that retain their original forms and fit them together like mismatched puzzle pieces. Shapes lead off of the edge of the work, obscuring their true forms.

Grill’s work is inspired by antique embroidery samplers, as well as highly decorated birth, baptismal, and marriage certificates from the 18th and 19th centuries. She creates drawings from these artifacts which provide her with a vocabulary of shapes, colors, and compositions all her own,  from which she then freely borrows to make her paintings. 

Grill paints on linen and allows the nuanced textures of fabric and paint, when illuminated by light falling on the surfaces, to guide her mark-making impulses; it is an intuitive process for her. In Seal, soft lines and forms are visible in the background of the composition while colors subtly lighten and darken in the foreground as shapes overlap.

In a Wave is a shortened version of the quote “bumping around in a wave” from the 2007 Ann Patchett novel Run. Grill was captivated by the quote’s ambiguous meaning – suggesting playful chaos and a willingness to surrender control. It conjures the idea of a wave being a container with a boundary, but the boundary is fluid and changing constantly, much like the forms in both artists' work.

Holly Coulis (B. 1968)

Holly Coulis (b. 1968, Toronto, Canada) received her BFA from Ontario College of Art and Design (Toronto, Canada) in 1995 and her MFA from School of the Museum of Fine Arts (Boston, MA) in 1998. Holly Coulis was featured in the exhibition, "Pocket Universe" (Philip Martin Gallery, Los Angeles, CA). Recent solo exhibitions include "Holly Coulis,” Philip Martin Gallery (Los Angeles, CA); and "Eyes and Yous," Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery (New York, NY). Holly Coulis’ work was recently included in "North by Northeast: Contemporary Canadian Painting” (Kasmin, New York, NY); Thailand Biennale at the Pimamthip Art Gallery (Pak Chong District, Nakhon Ratchasima Province); and “Evocations: Celebrating the Museum’s Collection” at Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art (Overland Park, KS). Coulis has had recent solo and group exhibitions at Philip Martin Gallery (Los Angeles, CA); Klaus Von Nichtssagend Gallery (New York, NY); Simon Lee (London, UK); Cooper Cole (Toronto, Canada); University of Georgia (Athens, GA); Atlanta Contemporary (Atlanta, GA); Massachusetts College of Art and Design (Boston, MA); Sardine (Brooklyn, NY); Paramó (Guadalajara, Mexico); El Museo de los Pintores Oaxaqueños (Oaxaca, Mexico); Galleria d'Art Moderna (Milan, Italy); The Bruce High Quality Foundation (New York, NY); and Leo Koenig (New York, NY). Coulis’s work is included in the collections of the Blanton Museum of Art (Austin, TX); Fidelity Investments (Boston, MA); Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art (Overland Park, KS); OZ Art Northwest Arkansas (Bentonville, AR); Rollins College (Orlando, FL); and UT Southwestern Medical Center (Dallas, TX). Her work has been reviewed in publications such as Artforum, Art in America, Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, Flaunt Magazine, Hyperallergic, and FT Magazine. Coulis lives and works in Athens, GA.

Clare Grill (B. 1979)

Clare Grill (born 1979, Chicago, IL) received her MFA from the Pratt Institute in 2005 and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2011. Recent solo exhibitions include Wich Language and Oyster, M+B, Los Angeles, CA; At the Soft Stages, Derek Eller Gallery, New York, NY; There's The Air, Derek Eller Gallery, New York, NY; and Touch'd Lustre, Zieher Smith & Horton, New York, NY. Group exhibitions include Of Flesh and Air, Marta Cervera Gallery, Madrid, Spain; The Feminine in Abstract Painting, Milton Resnick and Pat Passlof Foundation, New York, NY; Deep! Down! Inside!, Hales Gallery, NY; and New Skin, curated by Jason Stopa, Monica King Gallery, New York, NY. Her work has been reviewed in Artforum, ArtNews, Hyperallergic, the Brooklyn Rail, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The Boston Globe. Clare Grill lives and works in Queens, NY.