LOLA MONTES SCHNABEL Love Before Intimacy

The paintings in Lola Montes Schnabel’s first solo exhibition are fitting allegories for the infiltration of spectacle into every sphere of contemporary existence. Five large-scale works in an unvaried palette depict youths who, if sexually innocent, have nevertheless learned the art of seductive posturing. In one painting, a hermaphroditic eromenos dons “Blue Steel” for a faceless beholder. In another, pinned and straddled, s/he gazes listlessly at the viewer, less pre-intimate than post-pharmaceutical, a poster-child for a generation preferring Prozac to sex. It’s unclear in this work whether the figure crouching cat-like above is fixated on her prey with arousal or contempt. Spectatorial ambivalence becomes a comment on viewers of the work, and voyeurism in general. The actual painting is subtly alluring.