Katherine Vetne: Palate Cleanser
On view November 11 – December 23, 2023 | North Gallery
Opening reception: Saturday, November 11 from 3 – 5pm; artist talk at 4pm
Josephine Taylor: Night House
On view through December 23, 2023 | South Gallery
Jon Rubin: Playing Apart and An art school that is riddled with doubt
On view through December 23, 2023 | Media Room and EXiT
San Francisco: Catharine Clark Gallery announces Palate Cleanser, an exhibition of sculpture, metalpoint, and drawing by Katherine Vetne, on view November 11 – December 23, 2023, in the North Gallery. Vetne’s exhibition is the anticipated follow-up to her acclaimed 2019 solo debut at the gallery, Whatever I See I Swallow, and continues her meditation on themes of desire, consumption, and stereotyped notions of mainstream womanhood. In her latest presentation, Vetne imagines a surreal environment in which objects take on an almost fantastic animacy, as if existing in a strange and dreamlike world.
Palate Cleanser presents scenes from an opulent banquet through a series of uneasy still lifes. Vetne’s drawings and sculptures of distorted objects and vacant spaces are permeated by eerie undertones that may conjure tricks of the eye, hallucinations, or apparitions. Using high craft methods executed with traditional materials, Vetne fuses memento mori with contemporary stories of class, gender, and power, as told by objects.
Drawing on the history of vanitas painting, Vetne expands her visual vocabulary to convey a disquieting tension between life and the afterlife. In her intricately detailed metalpoint artwork titled The Centerpiece (2023), Vetne portrays a vase of tulips that seem to be double-exposed, as though the vase was moved mid-capture. The flowers project shadows onto the wall behind, resembling smudges or stains that disrupt an otherwise pristine surface.
In the foreground, Vetne includes a pair of shears positioned beside a freshly cut stem. The handles of the shears face the viewer, as if inviting us to engage in cutting the flowers ourselves. Vetne's composition is exquisitely executed but never tranquil, hinting at the frequent and uneasy coexistence of beauty and violence. Join us for an opening reception on Saturday, November 11 from 3 – 5pm, with an artist talk at 4pm. 10% of artwork sales from Vetne’s show will be donated to Doctors Without Borders.
