Jingze Du: Midnight Steve Turner is pleased to present Midnight, a solo exhibition of recent paintings by Dublin-based Jingze Du that were inspired by art, fashion, film, urban life, the Internet and the serenity of midnight. Du is an avid consumer of culture, both high and low, and it seeps into his work in many different ways. The influence of Picasso’s bulbous and distorted bodies is evident in many of Du’s figures as are images of selfie-posing Internet influencers. Favorite fashion brands are subjects of Du’s reconfiguring as are major and minor film characters. Each painting has a mix of inspirations that Du represents with one of his signature painting styles, either in soft transitions of gray with accents of black and white using thinned-down oil paint, or in several colors using spray-paint. The idea of midnight is central to Du, for it is then that busy, noisy days quiet down, allowing for thought, music and the distillation of influences. Jingze Du (born 1995, Yantai, China) moved to Dublin when he was thirteen years old. He later earned his BA at the National College of Art & Design, Dublin (2017) and his MA from the Royal College of Art, London (2019). He has had solo exhibitions at Hive Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing (2021); L21, Palma de Mallorca; Steve Turner, Los Angeles (May & October 2020) and has presented work in group exhibitions at The Hole, New York (2021) and Carl Kostyal, Stockholm (2020). This is his third solo exhibition at Steve Turner. A new monograph on Du is being published by Steve Turner in 2022. --------------- Maria Calandra: Walking in the Wild Steve Turner is pleased to present Walking in the Wild, a solo exhibition of recent paintings by Brooklyn-based Maria Calandra that are inspired by her frequent excursions into nature. According to Calandra: Walking in the wild plays a major role in my artistic life. I have always been mesmerized by the repeating lines and colors in reflected water, ancient rocks and twisted tree trunks and roots. Channeling a stream of consciousness, I pull from both the real and imagined while using a form of automatic painting to guide me. I try to make connections between that which I observed and that which I remember. I aim to liberate my thoughts and experiences from any boundaries of the rational. Photos taken while hiking are used as a visual springboard, but the work quickly departs from there to the memory of a place and the feeling I had while in it. Some of these memories date back to my youth. As I always begin painting a particular place while listening to the same music that I listened to when I was there, undulating sounds and vibrations also influence my brush strokes. The paintings are dense with detail and I strive to make them as alive and wild as the lands that inspired them. Maria Calandra (born 1976, London) earned a BFA from Ohio University (1999) and an MFA from Cornell University (2006). She is the artist and writer behind Pencil in the Studio, an online project for which she visits an artist for one day to capture their studio and artwork in a drawing. She has exhibited her work at Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York; Shrine Gallery, New York; Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery, New York and Fourteen30, Portland. This is her first solo exhibition at Steve Turner.