Sally Paul

Shelter is pleased to present Sally Paul’s debut solo exhibition with the gallery “Banana Walk”.

On a film set, “banana walk” is a term to describe walking in a curved line to accomplish the cinematic goal of revealing something in frame at the opportune moment. Walking in such an unplanned, circuitous path was in part, the genesis of the imagery for the show. The built environments of New York City and Philadelphia, specifically the architectural and decorative elements as seen from the sidewalk, became inspirations for the artist while she took her daytime and evening strolls. For Paul, fragments from these walks are framed within each composition, in a sense, transforming her paintings into receptacles of memory and experience.

The artist first came across the term "banana walk" while listening to music in the studio one day. A song with the same name by Dub Specialist was an immediate point of connection and captures the sensibility of the body of work that Paul has spent the past year on. The artist has long been drawn to the experimental nature of Dub music and its ability to take an existing song and create a pared-down, distorted version of it. This reclassification of the familiar is inherent to Paul’s work, as she strives to make references from the everyday feel novel, by tweaking, changing, and playing with color, texture, sheen, and figure-ground relationship.

Symbolically, the banana has had an enduring connection to slapstick and physical comedy. Embracing the absurd, and incorporating the unconventional is intrinsic to the philosophy behind the work. Instead of using a brush, paint is squeezed, poured, peeled, woven, and collaged.

“Banana Walk” celebrates happening upon the new and old, and frames serendipity in paint. In the simplest sense, the artist hopes the viewer will see the world around them in a new light and will embrace the joy and whimsy that can be found in everyday life.

Sally Paul - Born and raised in Philadelphia, and based in Kansas City since 2019, and based in Kansas City since 2019, Sally Paul makes object-like paintings using acrylic paint and paint peels, with a focus on material exploration, punchy color pallets, and spare geometric compositions. Sally Paul has exhibited at The EKRU Project in the Crossroads, the MdW Art Fair in Chicago, and Essex Flowers, My Pet Ram, 247365, and The Arsenal Gallery in New York City. She currently has a solo exhibition on view at Shelter Gallery on the LES of Manhattan. As an Educator, she has taught at the Museum of Modern Art, The American Folk Art Museum, the International Center of Photography, and The Bronx Museum. She is the co-founder of Troost Gardens, an artist-run gallery located at 73rd and Troost Avenue in Kansas City, MO. She received a BFA from Pratt Institute and MA in Art Education from New York University.