Shared
The Kitchen | gouache and paper collage on panel | 20 × 25.5 inches
Parent’s Room | gouache and cut paper collage on panel | 25.5 × 20 inches
Four Sisters | gouache and paper collage on panel | 18 × 20 inches
Five Brothers | gouache and paper collage on panel | 18 × 25.5 inches
Hortencia’s House | gouache and paper collage on panel | 40 × 30 inches
Angela and Gary’s Room | gouache and paper collage on panel | 20 × 22 inches
Carolyn and Ann’s Room | gouache and paper collage on panel | 20 × 22 inches
Six Sisters (Judy) | paper collage on paper | 50 × 60 inches
Six Sisters (Joanne) | paper collage on paper | 50 × 60 inches
Shared
Steven Zevitas Gallery, Boston, MA
July 5, 2014
In Shared, Toebbe presents six new paintings on panel and two large works on paper. In the work, she continues the exploration of interior spaces that has defined her practice over the past decade. The subject of Toebbe’s work is memories of childhood homes of her friends and family. Shared takes on the ways in which time and memory shape, clarify and blur our personal histories.
The exhibition has three subjects. The first five paintings focus on the childhood home that Toebbe’s friend and former nanny, Hortencia, shared with her family. The work originated in a collaboration, with Hortencia making sketches of the home and discussing the paintings with Toebbe as they took shape. Of the work, Toebbe has stated:
The idea for the paintings in Shared started with Hortencia’s stories of growing up in a large family in a small house. Once I stumbled on this theme, I thought of my family and many friends who, due to lack of space, had to share a room and sometimes a bed with their siblings. Presently my two daughters share a bedroom in our small condo in Chicago.
In two other paintings, Toebbe draws on recollections of the room she shared with her sister and the bedroom of childhood friends who lived down the street. Finally, Toebbe presents two large works on paper that represent the bedroom two of her aunts shared as children