Corrine Slade
Moon as My Mirror

The Breeder is pleased to present Corrine Slade’s first solo exhibition with the gallery,  Moon as My Mirror.

Corrine Slade’s colorful, highly detailed canvases create new ecofeminist mythologies. With high-contrast palettes, the artist depicts her female protagonists in various scenes alongside lush flora and fauna. Slade embraces disparate references from pop culture, mythology, art history and her own cultural and personal heritage across her canvases.

Nature plays an important role in her compositions and there are recurring motifs of fruits, flowers, plants and the moon. These natural objects act as symbols of plentifulness, growth and fertility. They create otherworldly environments populated by black women in solitude or in companionship creating a sense of warmth. Her process consists of layering different thicknesses and opacities of oil paint over bright acrylic underpaintings. She utilizes the luminosity of acrylic paint to create auras emitting from her figures, illustrating their romantic energy. The growth of the natural world is intrinsically linked to the growth of the human spirit.

The sublime natural environments that she constructs for her protagonists are retreats for solace that do not exist for them in the real world. A world that often manages to simultaneously scrutinize and overlook black women. Her practice is driven by her ever-increasing need for escapism, immersing her audience in dream-like spaces that she herself finds comforting.

Slade’s current explorations consider questions of self-reflection, intuition and divinity. The moon becomes here a powerful symbol that represents these ideas and seems to engulf everything under a warm light. All of the works presented in the exhibition were made during the night and the scenes they portray take place during dusk or night time. Darkness creates a secure environment that offers a place for self-reflection to her protagonists. They use the moon as their mirror allowing them to practice introspection.

Corrine Slade (b. 1998, Montclair, New Jersey) lives and works in Chicago and completed her BFA at The School of The Art Institute of Chicago. Recent solo exhibitions include New Image Art Gallery, Los Angeles (2021); Jargon Projects, Chicago (2021); School of the Art Institute of Chicago Student Affairs Office, Chicago (2018). Her work has been included in numerous group exhibitions including the Museum of Science and Industry Black Creativity Juried Art Exhibition, Chicago (2020).