Lily Stockman
Seed, Stone, Mirror, Match
Titled “Seed, Stone, Mirror, Match," Lily Stockman’s latest solo show at Charles Moffett consists of nearly two dozen paintings that the Los Angeles-based artist completed at home during the city’s COVID-19 lockdown. Struggling with isolation, Stockman kept the monotony of her surroundings somewhat at bay by fixating on banal aspects therein. With decontextualized visions of these mundane details emblazoned in her consciousness, the distorted forms, in turn, took root amid the enigmatic geometries of her abstract, oil-on-linen compositions.
As the series neared completion, Stockman noticed that her pieces displayed an affinity with the structure of American poet Mary Ruefle’s prose—that is, the literal way that typography coalesces into text that delineates a poem within the layout of a page.
Likewise, the works in “Seed, Stone, Mirror, Match” make concrete the psychic fallout from Stockman's attempts to escape the unease of familiarity while in the confines of a familiar space.
Lily Stockman, Pecans, Marfa, 2020. Oil on linen, 14 x 11 inches. Courtesy of Charles Moffet.