The gallery is proud to announce Body-dwellers, a two-person exhibition of works by Christopher Davison and Orkideh Torabi. Using drawing and painting, both artists are interested in the moment when representations of the figure are vivified with lifelike dimension.

Inspired by people-watching on city streets, Davison often elevates those day-to-day moments into a dreamlike contemporary mythology. An angular woman posing frontally with her dog (Woman Walking Dog, 2016), a withdrawn, shirtless Luddite clawing a small box (Texter, 2014), and an elongated, hunched over figure lifting a heavy sphere (Boy With Ball, 2017) all seem to become existential scenarios. Working in a variety of media, the artist's process of intuitive mark making, erasure, collage and repair becomes a sort of liberated self-improvement, birth of the spirit, or casting off of worn-out bodies for the characters depicted.

Torabi imagines herself as a director who, through painting, resituates the power dynamics of patriarchal society in her native Iran. Rendered with simple button-like eyes, injured or missing noses, unnatural skin hues, and tacked-on mustaches, her paintings imbue the protagonists with an emasculated and clown-like state of being. Using fabric dye on cotton fabric through an idiosyncratic transfer process, Torabi's paintings have a batik or watercolor-like fluidity in which the coxcombical men revel. Titles like "Which One Is My Wife" and "I'll Catch You," update the timeless popular image of "the dirty old man" through contemporary political satire. Christopher Davison (b. 1970, Gallipolis, OH) lives and works in New York, NY. His work has been featured in exhibitions at the Rose Art Museum, Waltham, MA; Nicelle Beauchene, New York, NY; and V1 Gallery, Cophenhagen, DK; among others.

Orkideh Torabi (b. 1979, Tehran, IR) lives and works in Chicago, IL. Her work has been featured in exhibitions at Western Exhibitions, Chicago, IL; Yes, Please & Thank You, Los Angeles, CA; and throughout Iran. She is represented by Western Exhibitions, Chicago, IL.