To coincide with his exhibition, James English Leary has organized a group exhibition, “The Picture is a Forest” with recent works by Delphine Hennelly, Kathryn Kerr, Leigh Ruple, Nathalie Shepherd and Faye Wei Wei, whose works are exhibited in Vienna for the first time.

The works featured in this exhibition, while sharing strong allegiances to the problem of depiction, exemplify painting’s unique disposition to engage strategies of scale and space in the conjuring of intimacies and immensities.

Delphine Hennelly

Delphine Hennelly (Born Vancouver B.C. 1979) Received a BFA from Cooper Union (2002) and an MFA from Mason Gross School of Visual Arts, Rutgers (2017) Delphine has exhibited across the US and Canada including, a group show titled Parallel Lines, at Pt.2 gallery in Oakland, California, as well as a three person show, Between the Acts, with Ken Tisa and Sophie Larrimore at Mother gallery in Beacon, NY. and a two person show with Mickey McKenna at Projet Pangee in Montreal, Quebec. More recently Delphine participated in a two person show titled History Lessons, with Mimi Jung, at Carvalho Park Gallery in Brooklyn, NY. Delphine is a three time recipient of the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Award and her work has appeared in several publications including Art Maze Mag, The Winter Edition, Issue 6, 2018, and Nut Publication as well as New American Paintings Northeast Issue #134.

Kathryn Kerr

Kathryn Kerr is a New York-based artist, born in Los Angeles and raised in New Jersey. She received her M.F.A. from Yale in 2018 and her B.F.A. from the Cooper Union in 2007. Her paintings are made like a memoir–a notebook of recollections of events, dreams, maps, circumstances, and desires. This results in a body of work that is evocative, a bid to recall, in fluid detail, the events of her past and to dig deep to an authenticity that is a junction of our shared humanity. Kathryn’s work has been shown at White Columns, Karma, LaMama, Rear Storefront, Radical Abicus, The Range, Franklin Street Works, and Magenta Plains, among others.

Leigh Ruple

Leigh Ruple received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from The Cooper Union School of Art (2006) and her MFA from Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts, Bard College (2014).

Ruple’s work was recently included in solo exhibitions at PAGE (NYC) and Morgan Lehman (NYC), and group exhibitions at Marlborough Chelsea (NYC), The Suzanne Geiss Company (NYC), and Halsey McKay Gallery (East Hampton, NY).

Her work has been reviewed by Artforum, Time Out New York, Art F City, and Arte Fuse, amongst others.

Leigh Ruple’s works navigate the possibilities of figuration through complex spatial arrangements and saturated color, imbuing scenes both observed and imagined with psychological character. Drawing on her rural upbringing, the geometry of New York City, and the legacy of the American Regionalists as inspiration, she uses a vibrant palette to create distinctly contemporary Feminist allegorical paintings.

Nathalie Shepherd

Nathalie Shepherd received her BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and her MFA from the University of New Orleans. Her work has been featured in numerous group shows internationally, including Capturing Time at The Java Project in Brooklyn, NY; Thanksgiving Salon at Tripoli Gallery in Southampton, NY; the Brucennial, curated by Vito Schnabel and The Bruce High Quality Foundation, in New York, NY; Nathalie Shepherd and Rachel Jones at Gallerie im Andechshof, in Innsbruck, Austria; and The Candle Burned at Both Ends at Good Children Gallery, New Orleans, LA. Shepherd has also been a resident at several artist residencies, most recently at Frontispiece Hudson in Hudson, NY and Hewnoaks in Lovell, ME. She currently lives and works in New York City.

Faye Wei Wei

Faye Wei Wei (B.1994 in London) Lives and works in London. Graduated from the Slade School of Fine Art in 2016. Recent solo exhibitions include ‘Sweet Bitter, Valentine’, SADE Gallery, Los Angeles, USA (2018); ‘CFCCA Presents: Faye Wei Wei’, Centre For Chinese Contemporary Art, Manchester (2018); and ‘Anemones and Lovers’, Cob Gallery, London (2017). She has featured in group shows including ‘Dreamin’ Wild’, Keteleer Gallery, Antwerp (forthcoming) (2018); ‘NEW WORK PART III: SUBJECT’, Cob Gallery, London (2018); ‘Rhapsodies’, PingPong, Brussels, Belgium (2018); ‘Asthenia No. 06’, Hot Wheels, Athens (2018); ‘The Clarkory Show’, Museum Gallery, Brooklyn (2018); ‘Into Rapture’, Barbara Feinman Gallery, Los Angeles (2018); ‘Marzanna, Yours Again’, Hot Wheels, Athens (2018); ‘To a God Unknown’, Mrs. Gallery, Queens (2017); ‘Eclectic Dreamers’, Siegfried Contemporary, London (2016); Summer Blue, Lychee One Gallery, London (2016), ‘Winter In America’, Moms Favorite Space, California; and ‘FBA Futures’, Mall Galleries, London (2017).