Nicolette Spear
Dopamine
January 4 – February 22, 2025
Opening Reception:
Saturday January 25th, 5-8pm
Nicolette Spear, Dopamine, Gimmie
2024
Oil on canvas
40 x 30 inches (101.6 x 76.2 cm)
NS 25 32
$6500
Nicolette Spear, Dopamine, Equilibrium
2023
Oil on canvas
40 x 30 inches (101.6 x 76.2 cm)
NS 24 6
$6500
Nicolette Spear, Dopamine, Enveloped
2024
Oil on canvas
40 x 30 inches (101.6 x 76.2 cm)
NS 25 31
$6500
Nicolette Spear, Dopamine, Facetune
2023
Oil on canvas
40 x 30 inches (101.6 x 76.2 cm)
NS 24 1
$6500
Nicolette Spear, Dopamine, Primeras Impresiones
2024
Oil on canvas
60 x 48 inches (152.4 x 121.9 cm)
NS 24 5
$12500
Nicolette Spear, Dopamine, First Impressions
2023
Oil on canvas
40 x 30 inches (101.6 x 76.2 cm)
NS 24 2
$6500
Nicolette Spear, Dopamine, Listen
2023
Oil on canvas
12 x 12 inches (30.5 x 30.5 cm)
NS 25 30
$1800
Nicolette Spear, Dopamine, Consume
2023
Oil on canvas
12 x 12 inches (30.5 x 30.5 cm)
NS 25 29
$1800
Nicolette Spear, Dopamine, #SinFiltro
2023
Oil on canvas
24 x 36 inches (61.0 x 91.4 cm)
NS 24 4
$4500
Nicolette Spear, Dopamine, Pussy Politics (Roe v. Wade)
2022
Oil on canvas
60 x 48 inches (152.4 x 121.9 cm)
NS 24 18
$12500
Nicolette Spear, Dopamine, Rush
2022
Oil on canvas
40 x 30 inches (101.6 x 76.2 cm)
NS 24 7
$6500
Nicolette Spear, Dopamine, Vogue
2023
Oil on canvas
72 x 48 inches (182.9 x 121.9 cm)
NS 24 21
$14500
Nicolette Spear, Dopamine, Look
2023
Oil on canvas
12 x 12 inches (30.5 x 30.5 cm)
NS 25 28
$1800
Nicolette Spear, Dopamine, Interconnected
2024
Oil on canvas
48 x 60 inches (121.9 x 152.4 cm)
NS 24 26
$12500
PRESS RELEASE
Von Lintel Gallery is pleased to announce ‘Dopamine’ by Nicolette Spear. This is the artist's first exhibition with the gallery.
How with this rage shall beauty hold a plea? —William Shakespeare, Sonnet 65
Nicolette Spear’s arresting paintings combine emotionally evocative classical modes of nude portraiture with post-Pop critique of our collective addiction to corporate consumerism. Her soulfully described portraits of humans from the infant to the elder, the poised and the pained combine with meticulously rendered grids of ubiquitous corporate logos in a manner that bypasses puns and punchlines — to instead sound the alarm about the toxic biofeedback bouncing us around the algorithm.
Spears gives a cheeky and satisfying new dimension to the concept of the “brand,” being both an ideographic symbol and a scar of ownership on the flesh, but the quality of lamentation that pervades her paradoxical compositions speaks to what is lost. In some ways, these haunting paintings are what psychological shadow work looks like — naming and reflecting upon the dark side of our desires, the hidden costs of our earthly delights, and the devil’s bargain of agency for status that our increasingly online existence demands of us.
The figures in her works are shown alone, each one’s private darkness bespeaking an emptiness inside which they sit, and which also sits inside them. The light of the homescreen is a poor substitute for the light of the sun; no one seems well. At the same time, the grids form a kind of game board, a hopscotch of recognition and chagrin, participation and inner conflict, beauty and rage — a flash of engagement not unlike the dopamine hit that comes from a like. Far from attempting to scold or resolve the situation, Spears simply deeply notices it, and saves it as a chronicle of this time in history. — Shana Nys Dambrot, Los Angeles 2024
Spear lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. She graduated from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in with a BFA in painting in 2009.For additional information or visual material please contact the gallery by email at gallery@vonlintel.com.
Von Lintel Gallery
2525 Michigan Avenue, Unit A7
Santa Monica, CA 90404
gallery@vonlintel.com
Gallery Hours:
Wednesday - Saturday
from 12am until 6pm
