By Julia Halperin
Art history’s most famous love stories are cautionary tales. Think: Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, Lee Krasner and Jackson Pollock, Pablo Picasso and Dora Maar. A new exhibition in New York offers a considerably less tumultuous vision of artistic romance. “Couples,” at Eric Firestone Gallery, features the work of 26 artist-partners (through May 2) who explore material, color, and form in a complementary fashion. CULTURED brought together five duos featured in the show to answer questions about what it’s like to mix the professional with the personal. Each artist was instructed to answer without peeking at their partner’s responses, revealing just how compatible they really are.
Sahar Khoury and Alicia McCarthy
Oakland
What’s the best thing about being in a relationship with another artist? The worst thing?
Sahar Khoury: Best: I don’t have to explain that I need to drag in seven plastic loveseats into the yard for a while. Worst: Lots of trip hazards and paint residue in and on everything.
Alicia McCarthy: The best and worst thing about being with another artist is the same answer: it never stops.
What artist couples are role models for you?
Khoury: Ones I have never met: June Leaf and Robert Frank, Etel Adnan and Simone Fattal. People I know: Marie Lorenz and Jeff Williams; Jeffrey Cheung and Gabriel Ramirez; Mario Ayala and Mia Scarpa—it is a journey of very bright lights, harsh shadows, and candlelight, and there are moments of being in each one together and alone.
McCarthy: Etel Adnan and Simone Fattal.
Do you share a studio? Work far apart?
Khoury: We do not share a studio, but are in each other’s spaces when needed or on a deadline. Sometimes we have worked far apart for residencies. It can be nice to use language to describe what is happening since the other person doesn’t know intimately the circumstances in which you are working.
McCarthy: In the 20-plus years we have been together, I would say we’ve experienced every combination of shared and solo studios, as well as our home.
