LMAKgallery is pleased to start the year with the three-person exhibit Sleeping Rooms, Lie Awake, including the work of TC Cannon, Gabriella Sanchez, and Alexandria Smith. Featuring works on paper and on canvas, these artists deal with the American zeitgeist and bearing their visual identity through it.

TC Cannon’s work is still an anomaly within our times. Reflecting upon a rich heritage of Native American (Kiowa Tribe and Caddo Nation) culture, his artistic approach is with a rigor of color and a brutally honest view of life. Cannon passed away in 1978 at age 30, imbuing the spirit of an American youth while carrying the history of tradition and honor. His refreshing and honest look resulted in portraits that discarded nostalgic views and reflected a sensibility on how to move out of the disenfranchised and enforced societal chains. Cannon’s work has seen a resurgence and currently most of his work is traveling as part of the exhibition At the Edge of America, on view at the American Indian museum in NYC in March. We are thrilled to have found and feature a complete set of 5, woodcut works from 1978, the year of his passing. Each print is a stunning portrait of tribeswomen and men, depicted in rich color, and a vibrant reflection of their presence solemnly seated with pride. They each embody Cannon, the tradition he came from and the future he awaited, which was taken away from him.

Alexandria Smith is presenting a selection of paintings that cross over a few bodies of work, reflecting on the many isms and subjugations that have crossed her path. Smith fearlessly translates these confrontations and pressure into bold inner reflections that grow with the creation of each painting. Bold for their stance and assessment yet bearing an open soul that allows for a moment of tender and sometimes humorous reflection. Her choice of form is pushed through the deep tones of color, and use of matte and reflective surfaces. Guiding the viewer into this journey, Smith uncovers her next step, leaving behind images like clues within her visual vernacular. The gloved hands, legs, and pigtails form their own identity throughout the works, like actors fulfilling their roles within the artist pallete. Smith is currently on view at the Boston University Gallery, at Mass MoCA and in the spring at the Queens Museum.

Gabriella Sánchez is presenting new works on paper created specifically for this exhibition. Using visual queues from her design background, Sánchez is able to develop a language that is both recognizable and exclusively her own. These dualities are something Sánchez confronts in her life as an American Latina (or Latinx), and through her use of language and imagery she’s able to navigate the riches and the depravity she faces within the American landscape. Though engrained in personal dialogue and experience the use of silhouettes and ‘classic’ typeset allow the viewer to project themselves on these tableaus and the experience. Sanchez has shown her work at CCCM: Mexican Center for Culture and Cinematic Arts, Charlie James Gallery, and recently in a group show curated by Nina Chanel Abney at Jeffrey Deitch gallery, NY.