The cultural consciousness of New York City seems to have ballet on the mind: over the weekend, New York City Ballet closed its first run of an evening-length Swan Lake in four years, and American Ballet Theater dancers made a spellbinding appearance at Anne Imhof’s American performance art debut, Doom. Today, “Repose,” a study of the oscillating moments of intensity and quietude that dot dancers’ lives, opens at Salon 21: a downtown gallery dedicated to showcasing emerging artists and designers. The perspective offered by the artist, 27-year-old actor and trained dancer Holly Taylor, stands to advance the canon of imagemaking that has trailed ballet since its nascence in the royal courts of the Italian renaissance.
To those who follow it closely, it can seem like the centuries-old art form is only just making strides in stepping out from the male gaze that has framed it across time and continents; the casual fan may not know their développé from their dégagé, but they almost certainly know Degas’ dancers. “Repose,” by contrast, offers the chance to observe the ballerina’s journey—where she seeks inspiration, the otherworldly grace she strives to embody, the rigor she subjects herself to in the name of art, and, yes, her moments of repose—from the perspective of an artist who has walked that path herself. Across the 20-work exhibition of oil paintings and charcoals, Taylor’s execution of techniques ranging from chiaroscuro to figurative realism allows viewers to linger in the art form’s precious intimacies.
