Summer House
Alex Becerra, Mark Ryan Chariker, Gabrielle Garland, Brice Guilbert, Gala Knörr, Amy Lincoln, Maud Madsen, Nat Meade, Koichi Sato, Tony Toscani, Lorena Torres
Curated by Thea Smolinski
Pablo’s Birthday Gallery, New York
26 June - 1 August 2025
Pablo’s Birthday presents Summer House organized by curator and advisor, Thea Smolinski. The presentation features work by Alex Becerra, Mark Ryan Chariker, Gabrielle Garland, Brice Guilbert, Gala Knörr, Amy Lincoln, Maud Madsen, Nat Meade, Koichi Sato, Tony Toscani, and Lorena Torres. Smolinski borrows the title from a tradition of urban escapism, with all the implications of cooler breezes, slower paces, and endless afternoons; as if the warmer weather suddenly authorizes spontaneity, cheer, and idleness - and the occasional dubious decision.
With lusciousness comes both the drought and rain, the exhibition brings together artists whose main themes tend to reflect this summer agenda; our bodies desperate to reconnect with nature, our sudden amusement with mundanity, sweating in a collective revelry, and the ultimate authorization to be lazy. In Summer House, figures indulge in this nothingness; basking in apathy, appearing blissful in the slow passing of time, or posing together in celebration. Outdoor scenes evoke the awesomeness of nature and playfully use color tuned into the vibrancy of the season.
A quiet, heat-laden stillness permeates many of the works in Summer House. In Lorena Torres’ UNA VEZ EN ABRIL (2025), a man rests in a hammock, suspended in languor, while in Tony Toscani’s Where She Waits, a woman perches in airy summer clothes. Gala Knörr’s La fiesta terminó, larga vida a la fiesta (2024) drifts into the surreal, with a green face lost in ecstasy. Maud Madsen’s Pillow Fort (2022) introduces a playful mystery, cloaked in hues of blue. Nat Meade and Alex Becerra offer male figures immersed in summer reverie—whether caught in ocean waves or shaded beneath a brimmed hat. Nature comes alive in the dreamy, almost otherworldly color palette of Amy Lincoln’s Pink and Green Storm Clouds (2020), to the explosive volcanic light in Brice Guilbert’s Fournez. Gabrielle Garland paints an idyllic summer escape, while Koichi Sato and Mark Ryan Chariker create tender, reflective scenes that gently remind us of the joy—and strangeness—of being together again.
CURATOR THEA SMOLINSKI
Thea Smolinski is an advisor, collection manager, and curator who believes wholeheartedly in the power of providing a platform for art and artists. She has a BA in Art History from Georgetown University, and completed an MA and doctoral exams at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. She has held positions in various sectors of the arts, including museums (The Wolfsonian-FIU), galleries (Michael Werner and Shaheen Modern and Contemporary Art), advisories (Allan Schwartzman), private collection management, and research (the great Linda Nochlin). She has only mild regrets about not taking that internship with Phillips in 2005, and knows more about international shipping regulations than she ever expected to. Recent curatorial efforts with the Jane Club (Los Angeles), the Pit (Palm Springs), Shrine (Los Angeles), Massey Klein (New York), Future Fair (Los Angeles), and Mrs (New York) reflect an ongoing interest in women, networks, and labor. She lives in Los Angeles with painter Craig Kucia and their two children.
ARTIST ALEX BECERRA
Alex Becerra (b. 1989, lives in Los Angeles, CA) has had solo exhibitions at Galerie Timonier, New York, NY; Shane Campbell Gallery, Chicago, IL; Karma International, Beverly Hills, CA and Zürich, Switzerland; Weiss Berlin, Germany, and One Trick Pony, Los Angeles, CA. Selected group exhibitions include VETA by Fer Francés , Madrid, Spain; Jeffrey Deitch Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Kunstraum Potsdam, Germany; Wilding Cran Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; The Journal Gallery, New York, NY; Richard Telles Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; The Green Gallery, Milwaukee, WI; M+B Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Journal Gallery, Brooklyn, NY; Ben Maltz Gallery, Westchester, CA; and more.
ARTIST MARK RYAN CHARIKER
Mark Ryan Chariker (b. 1984, Spartanburg, SC) currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. He received a BFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University in Boston, MA. Chariker’s work has been included in numerous exhibitions, including Ojos de perro azul, Marinaro, New York; Lost Hours, Anat Ebgi, Los Angeles, UK; I have an idea!, 1969 Gallery, New York, NY; Platform, presented by David Zwirner Gallery, New York, NY; Red Root, Green Root, The Valley, Taos, NM. Mark Ryan Chariker has completed residencies at PM/AM Gallery in London, RAiR Foundation in Roswell, New Mexico, SÍM in Reykjavik, Iceland, and NES in Skagaströnd, Iceland. Chariker’s works are in the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH, Institute of Contemporary Art Miami, Miami, FL Center of International Contemporary Art, Vancouver, Canada, and Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, New York, NY; Paris, France. His paintings have been featured in Artforum International, Artnet News, and Art of Choice.
ARTIST GABRIELLE GARLAND
Gabrielle Garland (b. 1968, New York, NY) received her Master of Fine Arts at the University of Chicago, Chicago, IL and her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL.Gabrielle Garland has been the subject of solo exhibitions at The Pit LA, Los Angeles, CA; Taymour Grahne Projects, London, United Kingdom; Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago, IL; The Brent and Jean Wadsworth Family Gallery, Lewis University, Romeoville, IL; Hap Gallery, Portland, OR; and DOVA Temporary, Chicago, IL. Recent group exhibitions have been held at The Pit LA, Los Angeles, CA; The Hole, New York, NY; Weinberg/Newton Gallery, Chicago, IL; DeVos Art Museum, Northern Michigan University, Marquette, MI; 1969 Gallery, New York, NY; and Campbell Project Space, Sydney, Australia. Over the last decade she has been working on a series of images based in, on, and around architecture, portraits of apartments and houses featuring uniquely American interiors and exteriors. These paintings utilize a wide range of mark-making devices and an elastic perspective that draws out the specific personality of each domicile.
ARTIST BRICE GUILBERT
Brice Guilbert (b. 1979, Montpellier) lives and works in Brussels, Belgium. Guilbert’s work has been shown in a number of exhibitions including Mendes Wood DM, Anat Ebgi, Los Angeles, Island, Brussels, Belgium, Corrida, Ghent, Belgium, Théâtre National, Brussels, Belgium, Johannes Vogt, New-York, Louise 186, Brussels, Belgium, Super Dakota, Brussels, Belgium, MNAC Anenda, Bucharest Romania, Hunchentoot, Berlin, Germany, and We-Projects, Brussels, Belgium, among others.
ARTIST GALA KNORR
Gala Knörr (b. 1984, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain) received her BFA in Fine Arts from Parsons Paris The New School in 2007, and an MA Fine Art from Central Saint Martins in 2011. She has been the recipient of Generación 2020 - Fundación Montemadrid, the Basque Artist Program Grant from the Solomon R Guggenheim Museum, and the Cultura Resident Artistic Research Fellowship from the Consorci de Museus GVA. Gala Knörr was the Education Department Assistant at the Saatchi Gallery in 2014, and appointed the 2018-2019 Artist-Researcher in residence at Centre for Postcolonial Studies at Goldsmiths University in London. She has also done residencies at Tabakalera International Centre of Contemporary Culture in San Sebastian, Cité Internationale des Arts Paris, AIR Wro in Breslau, and Fundación Bilbaoarte Fundazioa in Bilbao. She currently lives between Vitoria-Gasteiz and Marbella.
ARTIST AMY LINCOLN
Amy Lincoln (b. 1981, Bloomington, Indiana) completed her MFA at Temple University’s Tyler School of Art in 2006 and her BA at University of California, Davis in 2003. Lincoln’s work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Sperone Westwater (2024; 2023; 2021), Taymour Grahne Projects, London (2022), Morgan Lehman Gallery, New York (2018; 2016) and Monya Rowe Gallery, Saint Augustine, FL (2016), among others. Her work has also been featured in numerous group exhibitions including Johansson Projects, Oakland, CA (2024), Columbus Museum of Art, OH (2023), The Hole, New York (2022), Sargent’s Daughters, New York (2018), and Regina Rex, New York (2017), as well as internationally at Galerie Valerie Bach, Brussels, Belgium (2020) and Taymour Grahne Projects, London (2022; 2021). Lincoln has been awarded residencies at the Wave Hill Winter Workspace program, the Inside Out Art Museum Residency in Beijing, and a Swing Space residency from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Her work is in the permanent collections of the Columbus Museum of Art and Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia.
ARTIST MAUD MADSEN
Maud Madsen (b. 1993, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada) is an artist living and working in Brooklyn, NY. Maud Madsen earned a BFA from the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, in 2016, an MFA from the New York Academy of Art, New York, NY, in 2020. Recent solo exhibitions include Dog Days, Half Gallery, New York, NY (2023); Daisy Chain, Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York, NY (2022); Maud Madsen, Half Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (2022); and Maud Madsen: Three Paintings, 1969 Gallery, New York, NY (2021). Her work has been included in numerous group exhibitions, including A Crack in Overton’s Window, The Ranch, Montauk, NY (2023); Painters of Modern Life, Ibiza, Spain (2023); Up All Night, Frederick & Freiser, New York, NY (2023); Come a Little Closer, DC Moore Gallery, New York, NY (2023); Women of Now, Green Family Art Foundation, Dallas, TX (2022); Stiltsville, Half Gallery, Miami, FL (2021); among others. Maud Madsen is the recipient of the 2022 Canadian Women Artists’ Award, New York Foundation for the Arts.
ARTIST NAT MEADE
Nat Meade (b. 1975, Greenfield, Massachusetts) received his BFA from the University of Oregon and his MFA from Pratt Institute. His work has shown in numerous group and solo exhibitions nationally and internationally, and has been reviewed in publications such as Art Forum, Juxtapoz, The Boston Globe, and Hyperallergic. Meade is an instructor of painting and drawing at Pratt Institute, where he also serves as the Assistant Chairperson of Fine Arts.
ARTIST KOICHI SATO
Koichi Sato (b. 1974, Tokyo, Japan) is a self-taught New York City based artist. Having grown up influenced by the abundance of images in television and sports, his paintings generally focus on the playful reinvention of these images in bold stylization, pattern, and color. Sato has been the subject of solo exhibitions at NANZUKA in Tokyo, Jack Hanley in New York and East Hampton, Bill Brady Gallery in Miami, Woaw in Hong Kong, and the Hole, New York. Selected group exhibitions include Bortolami, New York; Stems Gallery in Brussels; the Parco Museum in Tokyo; Jeffrey Deitch in both Los Angeles and New York; and Galerie Nagel Draxler in Cologne.
ARTIST TONY TOSCANI
Tony Toscani (b.1986, Abington, PA) received his BFA from Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, and his MFA from the School of Visual Arts in 2011. He has exhibited in solo exhibitions with Carl Kostyal, London, UK; Stems Gallery, Brussels, BE; and Massey Klein Gallery, New York, NY. Recent group exhibitions include Volery Gallery, Dubai, UAE; Massey Klein Gallery, New York, NY; Here Arts Center, New York, NY; Knee Pits Gallery, Miami, FL; Gowanus Ballroom , Brooklyn, NY; Gesamtkunst Workshop, Brooklyn, NY; Field Projects Gallery, New York, NY; Barrett Art Center, Poughkeepsie, NY and Stillhouse Gallery, Brooklyn, NY. Tony Toscani currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
ARTIST LORENA TORRES
Lorena Torres (b. 1991, Barranquilla, Colombia) holds a BFA in Visual Arts from Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá. Her most recent solo exhibitions include Huxley-Parlour, London, 2024; Weinstein Hammons, Minnesota, 2024; Pablo’s Birthday, New York, 2023; and SGR Galeria, Bogotá, 2023. Torres recently completed a residency at Casa Santa Ana in Panama City and will be an upcoming resident at the Thread residency in Sinthian, Senegal, a collaboration between the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation and Le Korsa. Lorena Torres lives and works in Bogotá, Colombia.
PABLO'S BIRTHDAY GALLERY
105 Hudson Street, #410, New York, NY 10013
