LOIS LAMBERT GALLERY
in the Upstairs Gallery
RACHEL DALY, EMBROIDERING with Paint:
The Contemporary Textile
November 18, 2023 - January 6, 2024
Opening Reception: Saturday, November 18, 6-9PM
RACHEL DALY, Athena, Oil on Canvas, 25” x 33”
Lois Lambert Gallery presents Embroidering with Paint: the Contemporary Textile, the most recent exhibition of work by artist Rachel Daly.
In this body of work, Daly paints surrealist portraits of various women that she has admired in some way. “My most recent work is an introspective look at beauty. As I age and change, I have started to reflect on society’s reaction to me. I am less visible, but at the same time, I have become more powerful. Aging is a super power, it has allowed me to open my eyes to seeing beauty in a deeper way. Looking at a group of women, some who I have admired from afar and some who are very dear to me, I have created this harem of powerful personalities. They are surrealist portraits of each individual, celebrating their strengths and differences whether in quiet stoicism or loud defiance.”
Daly breaks the traditional rules of oil paint and meticulously layers “beads” of paint to create an illusion of textiles and embroidery. This unique technique allows a certain sense of creative freedom that traditional needle and thread work would not permit. The viewer is enveloped into the tactile vibrant works, swept along by the illusion of thread, and plunged into the dream-like narrative of each piece. “My work and my technique of “embroidering with oil paint” is meticulous and time consuming. Each stroke mimics a stitch, and thousands of these stitches create an embroidered image that, when viewed as a whole, creates a liminal space between textile and painting.”
When creating her works, Daly reflects on her own circumstance, engaging in a very personal journey. Each artwork requires weeks of detailed and concentrated work, but once Daly has finished, she is able to let go of any turmoil and is no longer attached to the piece. In doing so, Daly uses the act of creating as a way to process and come to terms with her inner thoughts. The work featured in Embroidering with Paint: the Contemporary Textile was produced with Daly’s meditations on beauty, age, and power through a collective feminine experience.
Rachel Daly was born in 1981 to English parents, living in Florence, Italy. Daly was heavily influenced by her childhood in Italy, surrounded by an abudance of history, culture, and the eccentricities of life in an artistic community. Daly spent a year studying at the Charles Cecil School of Art in Florence, IT before moving to London, UK in 2000 to attend the Wimbledon and Slade Art Foundations. Daly went on to study Drawing at the Camberwell Art School in South London, and later moved to Connecticut, USA in 2011. Her work has been shown at The Other Art Fair in Dallas, Los Angeles, Brooklyn and Chicago, as well as Context Miami Basel, Art Expo NYC, and Palm Beach Art Fair. This is Daly’s first exhibition at Lois Lambert Gallery.
Lois Lambert Gallery, Bergamot Station
2525 Michigan Ave., #E3, Santa Monica, CA 90404
(310) 829-6990 | info@loislambertgallery.com
Hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 10:00am - 6:00pm