Auxier Kline is pleased to present A Distant Mirror, an exhibition of recent paintings by Samuel Guy, on view May 14 through June 11, 2022. For the artist’s debut solo exhibition at the gallery, Guy has developed a series of small-scale portraits that both reference historical paintings and consider contemporary issues of self presentation and performance.

Composed of seventeen self-portraits, A Distant Mirror presents Guy performing himself in different versions. Guy fashions various historical and folkloric icons in his own image, finding throughlines, ambiguities and disruptions. Through observational paintings made over multiple sittings, these self presentations manipulate and redefine the pageantry of American manhood. Akin to country music’s tradition of modifying lyrics and melodies into new songs, Guy’s paintings place art historical references within a contemporary context allowing them to transcend one meaning for the opportunity to become another. 

At the heart of Guy’s works is a nuanced clash of interests and values. Carefully constructed against the backdrop of his family home in rural, upstate New York, his paintings are an amalgamation of sincerity, self-depreciation and acknowledgement. The paintings suggest the inherent composite nature of being with remarkable sensitivity; how we carry “heroes” with us, for better or worse.

Samuel Guy is an artist and educator living between Brooklyn and Afton, NY. He received his BFA in Painting from Alfred University in 2014 and his MFA in Painting from Boston University in 2019. Selected group exhibitions include “Significant Others”, Auxier & Kline Gallery, New York, NY (2021); “Stonebreakers”, LAUNCH F18, New York, NY (2021); “Eye Contact”, Area Gallery, Boston, MA (2019) and “Proximity”, Anna Zorina Gallery, New York, NY (2019).

 Guy has been an artist in residence at Constance Saltonstall Foundation in Ithaca, NY and at the Rocky Neck Art Colony in Gloucester, MA in 2015. He received an Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation award in 2021, a Colman Foundation award in 2019 and a Constantin Alajalov Scholarship in 2017. Guy is the Co-owner and Director of Greene House Gallery; an artist-run exhibition space in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. This exhibition was made possible by the generous support of the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation.