Anthony Cudahy: Spinneret draws inspiration from—and is named for—the silk-producing organ that spiders use to weave, or spin, their webs. Cudahy’s figurative paintings piece together enigmatic scenes of specific objects and equivocal environments from interwoven references drawn from Queer archives, art history, film, poetry, friends, and his own autobiography. His fluid application of paint and idiosyncratic palette—at moments sullen, earthen, corporeal and at others high-key, acidic, artificial—animates the ongoing push and pull conceptually and materially across the artist’s practice.
Through his art, Cudahy explores the hazy slippages of subjectivity in the digital age. The artist anchors his compositions to passages of gentle tenderness, absent-minded repose, or banal isolation; prosaic instances that often carry the greatest poetic weight. Within these moments, Cudahy contemplates love and friendship. His husband, the photographer Ian Lewandowski, frequently appears as the artist’s muse, found reading, sleeping, or entwined. Cudahy also turns to his network of friends, like the artist Lily Wong, who is caught lost in thought gazing from a balcony or tensely moving furniture in a New York apartment. The art historical mixes with the present, as Cudahy imbibes figures and compositions from works by artists as far-flung as Giorgione, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Lois Dodd, and Francis Bacon.
Wrapped around his scenes of intimacy are meditations on death and its politics. From the HIV/AIDS crisis of the 1980s and 1990s to the COVID-19 Pandemic, Cudahy examines these periods of crises with homages to artist and filmmaker Derek Jarman, and more germane views of crowds congregating during lockdowns. Cudahy brings together different histories, culling images from a range of sources, including photos from the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center archives in New York and medieval tapestries. These themes are woven throughout the works in the exhibition.
 Anthony Cudahy: Spinnert, published by Monacelli Press, features essays by Devon Zimmerman, OMAA’s Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art; Maria H. Loh, Professor in Art History at CUNY Hunter College; and Ricardo Monetz, Associate Professor of Performance Studies at The New School. Included in the catalog are reflections on Cudahy’s work by Anna Glantz, Ian Lewandowski, Billy Sullivan, Lily Wong, Philemona Williamson, Justin Liam O’Brien, Paul Legault, Elizabeth Glaessner, John Belknap. The 264-page hardback exhibition catalogue is available for pre-sale by emailing the museum at info@ogunquitmuseum.org. Please indicate the number of copies requested.
About the Artist:
Anthony Cudahy received a BFA from Pratt Institute, New York in 2011 and completed an MFA at Hunter College, New York in 2020. Along with recent solo exhibitions at Grimm Gallery, London (2023), Hales Gallery, London (2023), Museum of Fine Arts, Dole in France (2023), Grimm Gallery, Amsterdam (2022), and Hales Gallery, New York (2022), Cudahy has participated in numerous group exhibitions, including at the ICA, Miami (2022) and FLAG Art Foundation (2021). His work is represented in the collections of the Baltimore Museum of Art, MD; Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, among others. He lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
Image caption: Anthony Cudahy, Tempest (rooftop), 2021, Oil on linen, 72 x 72 in. (182.9 x 182.9 cm), Green Family Art Foundation; Courtesy of Adam Green Art Advisory. ©Anthony Cudahy. Courtesy the artist and Hales, London and New York. Photo by Phoebe d'Heurle.
High-resolution images available HERE.
About the Ogunquit Museum of American Art
Opened in 1953, OMAA was founded by the artist Henry Strater. The museum shares close historic and geographic ties to one of the earliest modern arts communities in the United States. OMAA houses a permanent collection of paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints, and photographs from the late 1800s to the present. The museum showcases American art by mounting modern and contemporary exhibitions and accompanying educational programming and events. OMAA sits on approximately three acres of gardens right on the water with stunning panoramic views of Maine’s iconic coves and outcroppings. The museum will re-open for the 2024 season on April 12. For more information, visit www.ogunquitmuseum.org.
For Media Inquiries, please contact:
Kristen Levesque
kristen@kristenlevesquepr.com
207-329-3090
Mary Keith
(617) 512-7489
mmkeithma@gmail.com
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High-resolution images available HERE.
About the Ogunquit Museum of American Art
Opened in 1953, OMAA was founded by the artist Henry Strater. The museum shares close historic and geographic ties to one of the earliest modern arts communities in the United States. OMAA houses a permanent collection of paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints, and photographs from the late 1800s to the present. The museum showcases American art by mounting modern and contemporary exhibitions and accompanying educational programming and events. OMAA sits on approximately three acres of gardens right on the water with stunning panoramic views of Maine’s iconic coves and outcroppings. The museum will re-open for the 2024 season on April 12. For more information, visit www.ogunquitmuseum.org.
For Media Inquiries, please contact:
Kristen Levesque
kristen@kristenlevesquepr.com
207-329-3090
Mary Keith
(617) 512-7489
mmkeithma@gmail.com
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