GRIMM has announced the representation of Brooklyn-based painter Anthony Cudahy. The GRIMMs
the representation and work on behalf of the artist will be shaped in close collaboration with Hales Gallery (London, UK and New York, US) and Semiose Galerie (Paris, FR). First presentation of the GRIMM with Cudahy
will be a solo exhibition of new paintings that will open on November 4, 2022 in Amsterdam (NL).

Anthony Cudahy weaves images from photographic archives, art history, film stills, hagiographic icons
and personal photographs to explore themes of queer identity and tenderness. His evocative figurative paintings and drawings are informed by extensive historical research. They negotiate feelings of loneliness, isolation, longing, and security through the prism of autobiographical narratives and artist-crafted mythologies.

In 1961, Henri Lefebvre wrote in his Critique of Daily Life: “Daily life does not exist as
generality.” Cudahy’s paintings are exemplary in illustrating this argument. His figures read magazines
or scrolling their phones in domestic interiors, brushing shoulders or shaking hands as they pass, conversing in crowds, crouching in unmarked spaces and lying lazily among fields of flowers or crumpled sheets. They face the viewer, their eyes casting wistful glances in directions outside the composition. Lit in brilliant hues of cyan, pink, purple, or teal, they have the thrilling energy of a ritual moment both in action and already retired into the story.

Erotic, dark, festive and private, these are not moments of anonymous banality but scenes of the specific extraordinary produced in everyday life. Cudahy often begins with collages and sketches of his photographic references, drawing inspiration from a variety of vernacular queer photographic archives or his own great-uncle Kenny Gardener’s extensive photo collection archived by his partner Ian Lewandowski. Moving through a variety of iterations from these thumbnails, it generates compositions
through a keen attention to color and mark making, maintaining a commitment to the mediums he uses to guide the final works.

About the artist

Anthony Cudahy (born in 1989 in Ft. Meyers, FL, USA) graduated with an MFA from Hunter College, New York, NY (USA) in 2020. In 2021, he presented his work with Ian Lewandowski at the Deli Gallery, New York, NY (USA) titled It was dark in his arms. He had solo exhibitions at Hales Gallery, New York, NY (USA) in 2021; Semiose Gallery, Paris (FR) in 2021 and 1969 Gallery, New York, NY (US) in 2018.

He has been featured in various international group exhibitions and was included in GRIMM’s Equal Affections exhibition in Amsterdam (NL) in 2021. Cudahy’s work has been featured in Artforum, Brooklyn Rail, The London Magazine, Cultured Mag and the Paris Review, among others. His work can be found in the collections of The Hort Family Collection, New York, NY (US), Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL (US), Xiao Museum of Contemporary Art, Rizhao (CN) and Les Arts au Mur Arthothèque de Pessac, Pessac (FR).

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Marc Westall

Mark Westall is the founder and editor of FAD magazine, founder and co-editor of Art of Conversation and founder of the @worldoffad platform