Australian-born artist Cj Hendry has dropped a full-sized house inside of a 22,000-square-foot warehouse in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, as part of a new solo exhibition that probes the relationship between art and interior design. MONOCHROME will run from April 5 through 8, and features seven different rooms, each painted in single color palettes in deference to the art hanging in each.
MONOCHROME, Hendry’s fifth solo exhibition, is a departure for an artist known for her hyperrealistic black-and-white pen drawings of pop and kitsch items. The show centers around a series of crumpled Pantone swatch painting in each room of a 10,000-square-foot house, from which the surrounding environment draws its singular color scheme.
Seven rooms throughout the exhibition, each playing off of a typical housing typology, have each been painted in their own bold color. The kitchen is green, the bedroom is fully yellow, a bathroom has been rendered in purple, the lounge in blue, the office in orange, the dining room in red, and a woman’s bedroom in pink.
“People generally buy art as the last item, they find art to match their home,” said Hendry in a statement sent to AN. “I have become close with my collectors over the years and have noticed how differently they live their lives. Art is the first thing they add to a space and they design their entire home around their collection. I have taken this concept to an extreme level. Each room has been designed to emulate the art on the wall. The art is the focus, everything matches the art.”
Hendry added that the drawings of crumpled color cards and resultant painting of each room was meant to give color itself a “physicality”. The interplay between familiar forms and unconventional color–an Eames Lounge Chair painted orange, yellow blue jeans–lends the items within a heightened air of artificiality.
Monochrome will be open to the public from 10:00 a.m to 5:00 p.m. at 276 Greenpoint Avenue in Greenpoint from April 5 through April 8.
