SWEET DAYS OF DISCIPLINE, GILLIAN STEINER, 2021

Organized by Sterling Wells

Vernon Gardens in the Verdugo Woodlands

July 17 – August 21, 2021

Opening reception July 17, 6-8pm

Vernon Gardens is thrilled to present Sweet Days of Discipline, an exhibition of new photographs by Gillian Steiner. The exhibition will be held at a private residence in the Verdugo Woodlands, with a reception for the artist on July 17 from 6-8pm, and running until August 21 by appointment. Please email vernongardensla@gmail.com for address, appointments, and inquiries.

Steiner’s photographs in this show depict baby animals, and people in all stages of the life cycle, often at leisure, in moments both found and staged. The animals at a Santa Monica petting zoo are trapped by close cropping, mimicking the actuality of their captivity. Only these bewildered animals, and the steely blue eyes of a baby, return the gaze of her camera. Her photographs of women of a certain demographic reflect a choice between motherhood and protracted youth. With every decision she makes, she carries the melancholic sense of loss at that which was not chosen. Her subjects at the beach, by the pool, and at the hot spring, function as archetypal embodiments of the Faustian bargain promised by America, and her photographs of them capture real moments of transcendent, fleeting escape from expectations.

Steiner’s work is characterized by beautifully lit, lush textures close to the camera: skin, wet hair, fur, glass, sand. This fetishization of surfaces reveals the ability of photography to produce the desire to touch, to have, to hold, to consume. She reveals the pathos and absurdity of our contemporary moment through devastating cuteness, heartbreaking sincerity, subtle irony, and naughty humor. 

The title of this show, Sweet Days of Discipline, comes from a novel about friendship, obsession, cruelty, and mental illness in a Swiss all-girls boarding school, set in what the author describes as “an Arcadia of sickness.” The shoe fits. 

Gillian Steiner (b. 1987, Los Angeles, CA) received an MFA from ArtCenter College of Design in 2020. This is her first solo exhibition in Los Angeles.