12. 26

12.26 is pleased to present Stolen Hours, a two-person exhibition of works by New York-based artist Georgia McGovern and London-based artist Judith Dean, on view at the gallery’s Dallas location. This exhibition, which features an array of paintings that glint at interior and exterior architecture, marks the artists’ first duo presentation with the gallery.

Absent of figures, aside from a couple of avian fellows, McGovern’s paintings feature the architecture of Manhattan seen through exterior facing windows. As a Lower East Side native, McGovern’s work is informed by the familiar surroundings of tenement-style buildings and chic new developments reflecting the paradoxical nature of old and new life through architectural perspectives. Several of these paintings were created while McGovern worked in the late Rosemarie Beck’s studio, where, from the top floor of Kenkeleba House, McGovern had a uniquely vast vantage point overlooking the East River, Brooklyn, and parts of the East Village.

In contrast to McGovern’s realistic depictions, Dean reveals the contorted innards of nonexistent chambers, bending the laws of traditional structure and flexing the eyes of her audience. Like a camera obscura, Dean’s paintings expose fan- tastical reimaginations of interior spaces with their contents inverted and subjected to the artist’s distortions. Dean’s op- tical illusions defy logic yet entice viewers with the familiar imagery of flowers, butterflies, and an anatomical heart along- side uncanny portrayals of loosely rendered figures meandering within illusive landscapes. Dean sources her imagery from the internet, the vast and endless digital realm ripe for visual harvest.

Together, McGovern and Dean exhibit a harmonious body of work. Stolen Hours brings the two artists together for a visu- al exchange, assuring the viewer of their reality while turning the dial on perspective ever so slightly.

Georgia McGovern (b.1988 New York, NY, USA) lives and works in Ithaca, New York. She received her MFA from the New York Studio School (2019); before that, she obtained her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2010). Georgia’s artwork has been featured in solo and group exhibitions at Dunes in Portland, Maine, Marinaro Gallery in New York, The Valley in New Mexico, Olympia Gallery in New York, and Brackett Creek Exhibitions in Montana.

Judith Dean (b. 1965 Billericay, U.K.) lives and works in London. She received her BFA from the Wimbledon School of Art in London (1988) with honors. She was also an artist in residence at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Am- sterdam (1991-93). Judith’s artwork has been featured internationally in solo and group exhibitions at Bodenrader, Chica- go, South Parade, London, and White Columns, New York.