Rachell Sumpter: Cornucopia

New York Gallery

In her first solo exhibition in New York, West Coast painter Rachell Sumpter exhibits a group of gouache and pastel works on paper with narratives that exist somewhere between documentation and myth.

Dwarfed by the environments they populate, her characters – sometimes masses of them – intently engage in purposeful activity. Or could it be ritual? When does habit overtake reason? In lush jewel-tones Sumpter presents fables that may or may not have happy endings.

Rachell Sumpter was born in Los Angeles in 1972. She studied at the American Academy in Italy before receiving her BFA from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California.