Tools of the Trade / Oil on linen / 20” x 16” / 2022

Is work just work? Curator Ashley Ouderkirk hangs a show with her boyfriend. Clark conveys them - across two moments in time - as a unit working together. Their personal affection, represented by a gear-like rotation of their bodies operating in tandem, brings meaning to their efforts and effectiveness to the task at hand. Tools dot the floor, a couple drills and a level. One has the sense that the relationship between the two subjects is even more essential. Their dog, sprawled on the floor, heightens the scene’s intimacy.

The painting they hang is a work by Clark featured in a Brooklyn show curated by Ouderkirk in August 2022.

LWC: I had a lot of fun with this painting because all of it felt so connected to my own experience. The far space beyond the gallery was the studio I worked in for three months as an artist-in-residence. Every day, this incredible light came in. The painting Ashley and her boyfriend, now fiance, are hanging is one of my own in the gallery space.