I always like to present [situations] in a way that destabilizes them, in a way that makes them seem surprising again…I will take a subject matter that almost feels stereotypical and then reimagine it so that it feels particular again. Or I will take something that I directly observed and make it heightened to draw out the tension. I am not altruistic, but I am trying to push and also to entertain. If I ever feel like I am being moralistic, I will do something to destabilize that too. I don’t search for any resting place outside of the resolution of the work itself. There is a humor there… — Georgia Gardner Gray
Georgia Gardner Gray’s practice incorporates painting, sculpture, and theater. Her brightly hallucinogenic painting style depicts a range of strange characters in dramatic scenes. Her recent body of work features a Spanish cultural figure called the cobrador del frac (“frock-coated debt collector”), an industry of debt collectors who dress up in strange costumes, such as frockcoats and top hats or matadors (seen here), that follow around their debtors to draw attention to them and embarrass them into payment. In Buscándola (Looking For It), three cobrador del frac cross a city street in search of their target. An inside-out umbrella and foggy background add a surreal backdrop to the otherwise realistic moment. Recent solo exhibitions include NDE, Sadie Coles HQ, London; Works 2015 – 2018, Kunsthalle Lingen; Concorde, UKS/Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo; and Precious Provincials, Kunstverein Hamburg. She has participated in recent group shows, including Before Tomorrow, Astrup Fearnley Museum, Oslo; Lose Enden, Kunsthalle, Bern; and Mercury, Tallinn Art Hall.