Richard Heller Gallery is pleased to present Natalie Wadlington, Pot-Bound. This is Wadlington's first solo exhibition with the gallery. About the Exhibition: Natalie Wadlington: Pot-Bound Pot-Bound: (of a plant) having roots which fill the flowerpot, leaving no room for them to expand. At the edge of our sense of self, we are greeted by the people, animals, and environments of our lives. They act upon us, as we act upon them, until our boundaries become both entwined, melded, and sometimes, frictional. With this new body of work, Natalie Wadlington continues her exploration of the self in relation to the living, breathing world around us. The two oil pastels, six paintings, and six corresponding graphite drawings that make up this show focus on scenes and situations which compositionally, emotionally, and narratively emphasize these complex and contradictory feelings. Both anxious yet intimate, unsettling yet familiar, the subjects of these scenes curve within their environments and the outer bounds of the canvas. In Bath with Dog a wild-eyed dog places its paws up onto the ledge of a bathtub, as the bathing figure holds her hands up to its neck and chest. When we take a bath, we are naked and vulnerable, wanting to be alone and relax. But pets do not honor these boundaries and often want to be right where we are at all times. Though this is sometimes frustrating, it is also the reason many people seek out animal companionship. This complication is, more essentially, at the heart of most relationships. Is the figure petting the dog, or keeping it out? Her face, with wide eyes and mouth agape, is comparatively blank to the manic, desire-filled expression of the dog, whose tongue and teeth are large and wild. In Tree Pit, Wadlington applies the show's considerations to the urban landscape. Since her move to Brooklyn in 2022, the logic of the city, and more specifically, the ways in which it delineates and binds nature, has been particularly striking to the artist. A tree pit is how the NYC Parks Department defines the area of soil around a street tree where the tree's roots grow. The older a tree is, the more its roots twist and turn to fit the shape of the rectangular plot it's given, mimicking the ways humans move through the geometric logic of the city streets. In this painting, a figure stands on a street corner, fidgeting with her necklace. Though she's in the middle of the city, she is engrossed in herself. The delicate latch of her necklace- the thing which connects two ends- has revealed itself and must be readjusted and tucked away. She is isolated with her own entanglements, much like the urban tree that she stands beside. The exhibition features two drawings made with oil pastels- a fairly new medium for Wadlington. The luscious, direct application of the oil pastel allows her a more expressive and immediate mark making. In Dog Walk the gestural lines of the figure's hair and clothes, the dog's fur, and the deep blues, yellows, and greens of the grass repeat the undulating energy of the scene, where a woman and dog bend and pull on the thin, taut line of a retractable leash. The pieces in Pot-Bound have a rich, textured surface which serve to hold the psychological self-expression Wadlington imbues into the materials of paint, graphite, and pastel. About the Artist: Natalie Wadlington (b. 1992) is currently based in Brooklyn, NY. Born in Modesto, California, she completed her MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art in May of 2020. Wadlington's practice consists of paintings based in story-telling and figuration. They are specific metaphors which communicate larger, archetypal narratives of love, conflict, and misunderstanding, specifically in our relationship to animals. In the paintings, characters come together in symbolic scenes which mirror our own complex struggles for mutual understanding. Wadlington has exhibited both nationally and internationally, including a solo exhibition at The Dallas Contemporary Art Museum. She has been an artist in residence at Ox Bow School of Art, Arrowmont, The CCC at CSU Long Beach, and High Desert Test Sites. Her work is in the permanent collections of the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, CA, The Beth DeWoody Collection, The Bentata Family Collection, The Weissman Family Art Collection, The Dan and Jennifer Gilbert Collection, and The Today Art Museum in Beijing, CH.