OCHI is pleased to present Embraceable Boundaries, an online viewing room featuring new paintings by Avery Wheless on view from August 24 through September 21, 2021 at www.ochigallery.com.

Sprightly femme souls grace the surfaces of Avery Wheless’ new paintings. Embraceable in size, each work is a peep into a landscape or a living room where young women play in peace. In daydreamy solitude or in sibling tandem Wheless’ protagonists remain more or less anonymous, unconcerned with being identified and occupied with the tasks at hand. They frolic, float, nap, and nibble leisurely in spaces that accommodate their desires to explore and to just be—sanctums free of the metaphorical gaze, an apparatus of power entangled with the history of paintings that depict the female body. At the roots of surveillance, the gaze—often qualified as male—begets self-awareness likely accompanied by anxiety and trauma. Wheless’ rejection of objectification makes room for something new and better.

Wheless plays with her paint as her protagonists play with their food, meandering for pleasure because completing the task is not the point. A flower smells sweeter when dangled above the nose, as two ladies demonstrate in Romantics (2021). They balance on a sofa with their eyes closed—we don’t gaze either. We move through the world, feeling the world emotionally and sensorily in our bodies [1]—Effortless and uninhibited paint strokes like rose petals grazing noses. Colors blend when Wheless applies them wet on wet—boundaries are only fun when pushed up against and curiosity is richly rewarded. The two figures in Held (2021) hold each other. Wheless emphasizes the tenderness of their embrace by easing their physical boundaries—they merge into their landscape because all matter matters and pleasure is the path to revolution.

“The erotic…is an internal sense of satisfaction to which, once we have experienced it, we know we can aspire.”[2] Understanding the edges of one’s joy can have an empowering ripple effect, helping to define the terms of consent as freely given, reversible, informed, and enthusiastic—but few take the time to map out their own pleasure. According the Wheless, vulnerability is both beautiful and exhilarating—an objectively worthy subject that she continues to play with in her studio. Embraceable Boundaries affirms that freedom can blossom within an idle afternoon and that play is an antidote to structural oppression.

Avery Wheless (b. 1993, Charlotte, NC) makes energetic and tender paintings about the female body in play—in solitude or collectively, in public or private space, with or without an audience, but always for pleasure. Wheless’ experiences as a filmmaker, writer, and frequent collaborator all feedback into her vigorous studio practice. She received a BFA in painting from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2015 and currently lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.

[1] A paraphrase of Deborah Kampmeier as interviewed by Rebecca Martin in Cinema Femme (March 26, 2020)

[2] Lorde, Audre. “Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power” (1978)