The Lounge Gallery at the Lyndon House Arts Center, features quarterly solo exhibitions by emerging artists. Artists in the beginning stages of their careers exhibit wall-bound works in mediums alternating from drawing to painting to photography to printmaking. The Lyndon House Arts Center is pleased to announce painted works by Kendall Rogers will be installed and on view in the Lounge Gallery as of September 8, 2020

Gen Z is both fearful and in awe of the mass amount of information we receive through media. Not only are we hyper aware of every occurrence, every news story, celebrity break-up or Presidential blunder  but we also are inundated with nonsensical, unrelated images and videos and are then left to interpret this pileup of information. As a coping mechanism, our generation responds with comedy that manifests itself many times through memes that often have an intentionally ridiculous or nihilist punchline. In alignment with this, my work uses absurdism to explore and expose the unknown waters of the technology-obsessed present and questionable trajectory of the future.

My paintings revolve around the collective female experience; more specifically intimacy, relationships, recklessness, sexuality, and emotion. I often like to explore feelings that can't quite be described through words but through a feeling of understanding. I use text and oversaturated subjects to mimic memes, advertisements, and “clickbait” I see online. The words on the canvas inhabit the same space as the figures. This is my attempt to marry our reality to the media that we indulge in. The words and phrases I use can be slang, brands or references to social media or advertisements. Sometimes, they are double-entendres and often, they are cynical.

Above all, I hope the audience can find my paintings relatable and that my paintings elicit a feeling of connection. Even if the viewer has a hard time relating to the female experience, I’m sure everyone feels the angst and intimacy of being homebound in light of the recent pandemic. This current body of work has directly been influenced by this sequestering.

Kendall Rogers is an artist and aspiring curator working with satire and cultural critique in Athens. She graduated from the University of Georgia with a BFA in Painting in May of 2020, and she is now an MFA Candidate for the New York Academy of Art. She will be moving to New York to begin her studies in August of 2021. Her work consists mostly of paintings, videos and art journalism.