P·P·O·W is pleased to host a conversation between artists Phoebe Helander and Sam Messer in conjunction with Paintings from the Orange Room, Helander's first solo exhibition with the gallery. Having met at Yale while Messer was teaching and Helander was earning her MFA in painting, Helander was Messer's final teaching assistant. Using the works on view in the exhibition as their point of departure, the artists will discuss their distinct approaches to painting.
Paintings from the Orange Room is currently on view at 390 Broadway, 2nd Floor, through Saturday, December 20.
Please join us for this in-person event at 390 Broadway, 2nd Floor, on Thursday, December 4, at 6:30pm.
No RSVP necessary. Seating will be allocated on a first come, first served basis.
Phoebe Helander (b. 1988) finds her subject within familiar elements of daily life. Revisiting the same group of objects, including melting ice, cut flowers, burning candles, bowls of milk, and a mirror with changing reflections, Helander’s deftly made oil on wood paintings come out of an expressive and durational form of perceptual painting. Helander received her MFA from Yale University in 2019, and now lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. Her work has been featured in group exhibitions at Karma, in Thomaston, ME; Pamela Salisbury Gallery, in Hudson, NY; Palo Gallery, in New York, NY; and New Release, in New York, NY; among others. In 2024, she presented her third solo exhibition with Pamela Salisbury Gallery, Hudson, NY, which was reviewed in Hyperallergic by art critic John Yau.
Sam Messer (b. 1955) received a BFA from Cooper Union in 1976 and an MFA from Yale University in 1982. He was appointed senior critic at Yale in 1994 and became associate dean and adjunct professor in 2005. He also served as the director of the art division of the Yale Summer School of Music and Art in Norfolk until 2019. Messer’s work is in the permanent collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art, among others. He has received awards including a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation grant, a Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant and a Guggenheim Fellowship.
