Episode 148

Photo credit: Whitney Bradshaw

Ep.148 features Celeste Rapone (b. 1985, New Jersey). She is known for her narrative paintings that blur the boundaries between figuration and abstraction. At the core of Rapone’s practice are formalist concerns such as surface, pattern, and color that shape the artist’s inventive figures and scenes. The protagonists of these paintings – often female – are shown in varying moments of repose and activity, their bodies unapologetically spilling towards the edges of the canvas. Emphasizing the act of observation in her work, Rapone layers autobiographical and art historical sources that transcend appropriation.

Celeste Rapone received her BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2007 andher MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2013 where she is an adjunct professor in painting and drawing. Rapone’s work has been exhibited widely across the U.S. and abroad at Josh Lilley Gallery, London; Marianne Boesky Gallery, NY; Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago; Roberts Projects, Los Angeles; Julius Caesar, Chicago; The Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago; Georgia Museum of Art; and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston.
Rapone was the 2018 recipient of a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant. Her most recent solo exhibition House Sounds is currently on view at Josh Lilley Gallery in London, and her work will be included in the Bemis Center’s upcoming exhibition Presence in the Pause: Interiority and its Radical Immanence, opening May 20, 2023.
Rapone lives and works in Chicago, IL and is represented by Corbett vs. Dempsey (Chicago), Marianne Boesky Gallery (New York), and Josh Lilley Gallery (London).

Artist http://www.celesterapone.com/

Josh Lilley Gallery https://joshlilleygallery.com/exhibitions/house-sounds

Bemis Art Center https://www.bemiscenter.org/

Marianne Boesky Gallery https://marianneboeskygallery.com/press/242-forbes-celeste-rapone-crosses-the-river-to/

Corbett vs Dempsey Gallery https://corbettvsdempsey.com/artists/celeste-rapone/

ICA Boston https://www.icaboston.org/art/celeste-rapone/pack-animals

Boston Globe https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/05/12/arts/ica-place-me-breathes-new-life-into-an-old-art-form/

Frieze https://www.frieze.com/article/celeste-rapone-house-sounds-2023-review

Artnet https://news.artnet.com/buyers-guide/7-questions-celeste-rapone-josh-lilley-2274616

ARTnews https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/breaking-art-industry-news-april-2021-week-3-1234590255/

Luxembourg Times https://www.luxtimes.lu/en/culture/artists-who-travel-through-time-602d71e0de135b9236bfa5bc

Hyde Park Art Center https://www.hydeparkart.org/directory/celeste-rapone-2/

All images ~ Courtesy the Artist, Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago, Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York and Aspen, and Josh Lilley, London.
© Celeste Rapone. Photo credit: Nathan Keay

Celeste Rapone
Muscle for Hire, 2022
Signed and dated in oil (verso): RAPONE 2022
Oil on canvas
67 1/8 x 67 in
170.5 x 170.2 cm