“SKYE CLEARY NEVER GETS OLD”
A Solo Exhibition
Presented in collaboration with
Lisa Levy, Sharilyn Neidhardt, and Meryl Meisler
Opening Reception
March 15, 2024 | 6-9pm
Artist Talk
March 28, 2024 | 6-8pm
The Untitled Space
45 Lispenard Street, NYC 10013
Exhibit On View
March 15 – 29, 2024
RSVP events@untitled-space.com
The Untitled Space is pleased to present “SKYE CLEARY NEVER GETS OLD,” a solo exhibition featuring the latest paintings of artist Skye Cleary, presented in collaboration with Lisa Levy, Sharilyn Neidhardt, and Meryl Meisler. Curated by Indira Cesarine, the exhibit will open on March 15, 2024, with an artist reception, and will be on view through March 29, 2024. An artist talk will take place with Skye Cleary in conversation with art consultant and founder of The Artist Advisory, Marina Granger, on March 28, 2024, between 6-8pm at the gallery.
Premiering over 20 acrylic on canvas paintings, “SKYE CLEARY NEVER GETS OLD” unveils the artist’s introspective journey, drawing inspiration from her experiences as an exotic dancer and the exploration of her identity as a sex doll. Additionally, the exhibition will debut a captivating series of photographs by the renowned nightlife photographer Meryl Meisler, documenting Skye’s intriguing life at the House Of Yes. This marks Skye Cleary’s most expansive solo exhibition to date, following successful showcases at SPRING/BREAK Art Show, Satellite Art Fair, and Arcade Projects.
Through her confrontational sense of humor, Cleary’s artwork challenges societal norms and empowers viewers to confront preconceived notions. Her paintings, which seamlessly blend imagery with empowering narratives, serve as a testament to resilience and self-acceptance. Cleary’s goal is to inspire young women to embrace their sexual agency and take ownership of their narrative, echoing her own journey of self-discovery and empowerment. Through her painting, Cleary combines images with words to create empowering messages of defiance, using irony as a tool of power, while addressing her personal life as a sex worker and the relationships she encounters.
Reflecting on her motivation behind the exhibition, Skye Cleary shares, “I created the work in this exhibition to examine and bring awareness to how ridiculous it is to feel shame from earning a living as an exotic dancer. To use humor to make light of it. I fear that society is afraid of women owning the power they already have. I want to address how women are often judged by their physical being and expected to feel shame in relation to their bodies. Most importantly, I want to encourage other young women to own their sexuality and have control of it.”
EXHIBITION STATEMENT:
Spanning various mediums including performance, text, illustration, and painting, Skye Cleary’s artwork challenges conventional boundaries and celebrates the complexity of female identity. Her narrative resonates with audiences worldwide, sparking conversations about autonomy, representation, and societal expectations.
Skye Cleary, the sex doll artist, was conceived by Lisa Levy in 2018. While doing research on the human imagination, Levy was gifted a sex doll from a prominent therapist. She realized that this symbol of a beautiful young woman could be useful to give voice to the messages of self-empowerment she imparts to young women on her radio show and in person.
She called on her close friend and painter, Sharilyn Neidhardt to work with her to give voice and artistic presence to Skye Clearly. Like the creative process used to create advertising, copywriter and art director working in teams, Sharilyn and Lisa began creating paintings and therefore a life for Skye.
Her job presents her as an object more than as a whole person—the talented artist that she is. She worries that the art world won’t take her seriously because of her exotic dancing and life as a sex worker. The work she is inspired to make is driven by, and about, this conflicting mix of motivations. In essence, the role of the sex doll has come full circle. Once thought of as a human-like object for a sex partner, Skye is still in the role of a beautiful young woman, but instead of a sex partner, she now has an art career.
Much of the contemporary art world is concerned with identity. With AI art, we are asking, “who is the artist?” An important question posed here is: “can a doll be the artist?”
SKYE CLEARY BIO:
Skye Cleary graduated with an MFA from the School of Visual Arts in 2016.
Cleary’s previous solo shows include Arcade Projects, Satellite Art Fair, and SPRING/BREAK Art Fair. She’s also been in several group shows, most notably at 56 Henry Street, the Whitney Museum Young Collectors exhibition event, and Chasahama.
Live performances about young women and sexual currency include The Brick Theater, Union Hall, and HERE Arts Center. Her work has been featured in many publications such as i-D, Whitehot Magazine, and ArtNet as well as a feature story in the School of Visual Arts alumni publication. She lives and works in Brooklyn with her 5-pound Chihuahua, Astro.
LISA LEVY BIO:
Lisa Levy blurs the lines between art and comedy as a conceptual artist, stand-up comic and performer and host of a radio talk show, “Dr. Lisa Gives a Sh!t.” She had a “riotously funny” sold-out show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. She’s challenged the seriousness of art by sitting naked on a toilet for two days mimicking Marina Abramović ’s famous MOMA performance: “The Artist is Present” with “The Artist is Humbly Present.” Her book of text paintings, “The Thoughts in My Head,” will be published later this year. She currently curates a gallery inside a comedy club of funny art by funny people.
Lisa began her art career at age 3.5 when her parents enrolled her in MoMA’s children’s school. She graduated from Syracuse University with a degree in illustration and had a successful career as an art director in advertising until she decided to devote herself full-time to her art. Rooted firmly in concept and humor, her art takes many forms, including performance, text, illustration, painting, as well as a combination of all of them.
Levy’s work has been exhibited in numerous art fairs and galleries and has been covered with feature stories in publications such as The New York Times, The London Times, Time Out New York, The Daily News, The New York Post, Whitewall, Dazed—as well as many other publications such as Artnet, Hyperallergic, and ARTnews.
SHARILYN NEIDHARDT BIO:
Sharilyn Neidhardt is a Brooklyn-based visual artist. She blends her experiences as a photojournalist and as a paintmaker into her work depicting experiences of urban life. Sharilyn is a co-founder of the artist community trans-cen-der, a founding member of the Drawing Club in Bushwick, and a member of Maggot Brain collective. Ms Neidhardt has exhibited widely in New York City and across the country, including solo shows in 2018 and 2022. She’s currently collaborating with artist Lisa Levy on a project about female sexual identity, with painter Mark Albright on a series about the legacy of Playboy, and with Seth Ruggles Hiler on an immersive project about art and chess. Sharilyn is an avid cyclist, loves midnight movies, and speaks only a little Mandarin.
MERYL MEISLER BIO:
Meryl Meisler was born in 1951 in the South Bronx and raised in North Massapequa, Long Island, NY. Inspired by Diane Arbus, Jacques Henri Lartigue, her dad Jack, and grandfather Murray Meisler, Meryl began photographing herself, her family, and friends while enrolled in a photography class taught by Cavalliere Ketchum at The University of Wisconsin, Madison. In 1975, Meryl returned to New York City and studied with Lisette Model, photographing her hometown and the city around her.
After working as a freelance illustrator by day, Meryl frequented and photographed the infamous New York Discos. As a 1978 CETA Artist grant recipient, Meryl created a portfolio of photographs that explored Jewish Identity for the American Jewish Congress. After CETA, Meryl began a 3-decade career as an N.Y.C. Public School Art Teacher.
Meryl was honored with the 2021 Center for Photography at Woodstock Affinity Award. She is included in The Hundred Heroines – a celebration of Women in Photography. TIME includes her in their selection of women trailblazers in photography: The Unsung American Female Photographers of the Past Century.
Meryl has received fellowships, grants, and residencies from the New York Foundation for the Arts, Light Work, Y.A.D.D.O., V.C.C.A., Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, The Leonian Foundation, The Puffin Foundation, Time Warner, Artists Space, C.E.T.A., the China Institute, and the Japan Society.
Her work has been exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Historical Society, CLAMP, Dia Art Foundation, Everson Art Museum, MASS MoCA, Islip Art Museum, Griffin Museum, Annenberg Space for Photography, the New Museum for Contemporary Art, New York Historical Society, Steven Kasher Gallery, The Whitney Museum of American Art, Fotogalerie Friedrichshein (Berlin), Carole Lambert Presénte (Paris), Portraits Festival (Vichy) in public spaces including Grand Central Terminal, South Street Seaport, Photoville and throughout the N.Y.C. subway system. Her work is in the permanent collections of the American Jewish Congress, AT&T, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, the Brooklyn Historical Society, Center for Photography at Woodstock, Columbia University, Emory University, Islip Art Museum, LaGrange Art Museum, Library of Congress, New York Transit Museum, Pfizer, Reuters, and Smith College Museum of Art.
Meryl lives and works in New York City and Woodstock, NY, continuing the photographic memoir she began in 1973 – a uniquely American story, sweet and sassy with a pinch of mystery.
EXHIBITION CONTACT
info@untitled-space.com
