Rebecca Shippee

Steve Turner is pleased to present The Creators, a solo exhibition by Rebecca Shippee featuring four portraits that are scaled to life and painted from observation. Her subjects are queer, their bodies altered medically or through wardrobe choices. One figure bears top-surgery scars and whimsical tattoos, while another wears emerald green silk pajamas and a nameplate reading Boyland. The show’s title refers to self-fashioning, the art of inventing oneself, a pursuit particularly vital to queer life as well as to the fact that all the sitters are cultural creators–artists, writers and activists. In choosing to portray individuals with whom she has close personal relationships, Shippee rejects the traditional notions of “active artist” and “passive muse.” Instead, she portrays the sitters as creators of their own images.

Rebecca Shippee (b. 1991, Troy, New York) attended Bard College at Simon’s Rock, Great Barrington, Massachusetts (2010); earned a BFA at Purchase College, State University of New York (2013) and attended Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (2018) before enrolling in the MFA program at Yale University where she is expected to graduate in 2020. She has presented work in numerous group exhibitions since 2012 and this is her first solo exhibition with Steve Turner. Shippee lives and works in New Haven.

Born 1991, Troy, New York
Lives and works in New Haven

Education
2020 MFA, Yale School of Art, New Haven
2018 Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Skowhegan, Maine
2013 BFA, Purchase College, State University of New York, Purchase, New York
2012 Yale Norfolk School of Art and Music, Norfolk, Connecticut
2010 MA, Bard College at Simon’s Rock, Great Barrington, Massachusetts

Selected Solo Exhibitions
The Creators, Steve Turner, Los Angeles

Selected Group Exhibitions
2018
First Year Show, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven
2017
Nude, Chris Davidson Gallery, Newburgh, New York
2016
Three Rooms, Gallery ELL, Brooklyn
2015
Oil, Atwater Gallery, Rhinebeck, New York
Bye Felici a, Bruce High Quality, Brooklyn
Wet, City Bird Gallery, New York City
2014
Under 40 Show, Woodstock Artist Association and Museum, Woodstock, New York
No Theme, Cocoon Theatre, Rhinebeck, New York
Works on Paper, Atwater Gallery, Rhinebeck, New York
New Year Show, Bruce High Quality, Brooklyn
2013
Smoke in Our Eyes, Boy’s Club, Berlin
Good Neighbors, The Butcher Shop, Boston
Award Winners Showcase, The Richard and Dolly Maas Gallery, Purchase, New York
Normal Sized Heart, Gallery 1019, Purchase, New York
In the Family, Atwater Art Gallery, Rhinebeck, New York
2012
Staying Awake, 1019 Gallery, Purchase, New York
Yale Norfolk Summer Exhibition, Norfolk Gallery, Norfolk, Connecticut
A Small Window of Opportunity, 1019 Gallery, Purchase, New York
Spring Break, Brooklyn Fireproof, Brooklyn
For Those Who Didn’t Know They Were Being Watched, 1019 Gallery, Purchase, New York

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