Cleo the Project Space is pleased to present Impressed with work by Ben Tollefson and Abby Edwards. This duo uses fantasy to heighten ideas of connection, memory and self reflection found through pop culture and societal impressions.

Edwards’s sculptural work combs through childhood iconography during the ‘90s to revisit play with shape and design. The reference to Memphis Design (found in moments with Tollefson’s work as well) is an invocation of brightly stylized compositions with a rejection of muted aesthetics. This adds humor and absurdity to her objects, found in the movement given to pencils, the size given to their grips and the overall palette given to the entire body of work, both highly patterned and textural. Edward’s work is a reminder of the importance of boundless expression through recollection, an activity that propels creativity in rebellion against a restrained maturity.

Embracing a wide range of motion, color and style as well, Tollefson’s paintings delve into reclaiming a sense of self through the idea of gender as a performance. Using drag and theater for inspiration, the work features self portraits clad in costuming to play with perceptions of a character. This play is a routine in forced illusion that pushes boundaries of gender ideology in favor of dynamic redefinitions. The paintings featuring sets with increased melodrama through the placement of curtains and lighting put the body of work into a feverish reality in which the acts of revealing and masking blur at center stage.

On Display at Thompson Savannah: 201 Port St, Savannah, GA, 31401