RHODES is delighted to current Louche, a brand new solo exhibition by acclaimed American artist Kevin Sabo Marking his UK debut, this collection of recent works continues in Sabo’s distinctive, vibrant model. His exaggerated characters make tongue-in-cheek popular culture references and playfully mock conventional gender roles, making a surreal world of satirical humour.
Kevin Sabo, born in 1992 in Virginia, is a Richmond-based painter famend for his multi-media strategy, incorporating acrylic, ink, spray, and collage. His work is characterised by exaggerated proportions and daring vogue components, usually juxtaposing company masculinity with playful, dominant female figures. Sabo’s artwork has been featured in worldwide solo exhibitions in New York Metropolis, Paris, Brussels, and San Francisco, and in publications corresponding to Architectural Digest and Metallic Journal.
In Louche, Sabo expands upon his curiosity in drag tradition and its intersection with the company world. “The best way I deal with my male and ‘feminine’ characters helps crystallise the emotions I’ve about these figures inside the bigger political and social dynamics we’re seeing each within the U.S. and internationally. The best way girls and queer persons are always being threatened with their rights, used as pawns in harmful conservative coverage, is one thing I can not ignore.”
His male figures, depicted as elongated businessmen, seem weightless and absurd, usually caught in humorous eventualities that critique conventional masculinity. In distinction, his girls exude freedom and confidence, participating in on a regular basis actions with unbothered poise. These dynamics serve to subvert typical gender norms and spotlight the resilience and pleasure inherent in queer expression.
Sabo describes his work as current within the house between sophistication and playfulness; carefree and easy on the floor, but carrying a refined, low-vibrational hum of one thing impending, one thing barely off. “There’s an ease within the imagery, but additionally a quiet stress, like a glamorous social gathering the place the air is just a bit too thick, the place one thing unsaid lingers beneath the floor.”
He’s drawn to iconic, common gestures corresponding to a lady smoking a cigarette or placing on lipstick, acquainted moments that he distorts into his personal visible language. These references grow to be infused with a unfastened, lingering narrative; a barely uneasy feeling of one thing darker underneath the floor. “All of it ties again to the phrase Louche, that infectious attract, one thing so fascinating you may’t look away, even while you sense that one thing is amiss. It’s the great thing about indulgence with a shadow solid over it, a sublime unravelling.”
Sabo’s latest experimentation with supplies has led to a extra pronounced use of graphite, including daring, scratchy traces and uncooked textures to his acrylic bases. This system creates a lithograph-like impact, enriching the visible complexity of his compositions. He describes this evolution as an thrilling growth in his apply, providing a recent perspective on his topics.
Louche not solely showcases Sabo’s technical prowess but additionally his dedication to addressing urgent social and political points. By infusing severe themes with humour and playfulness, he invitations viewers to replicate on the challenges confronted by girls and queer people, whereas additionally celebrating the enjoyment and resilience that outline these communities.
Louche will likely be on show at RHODES 4th – 26 April 2025
