We welcome back our 2024 Young Painters Yeck Awardee, Emily Bartolone, with her exhibition, Life Together. Stemming from her infatuation with the formal elements of painting, the work in this exhibition pairs down simple, anthropomorphized shapes in an effort to explore paint and color theory while simultaneously creating tension and humor through color, edges, and texture. The playful, human qualities of painting are incorporated into the work through the use of amorphous shapes animated within the picture plane. The introduction of curved shapes allows for a push back against the bravado of minimalism and geometric abstraction she has experienced as a female artist in those fields, adding feelings of tension that mimic her own in relation to those ideas.