Lucia Love's surreal paintings are packed with symbolism referencing politics, gender, history & the dynamics of power.

Like a work of speculative fiction, Love pushes actual events to their most absurd extremes to create their imagined worlds.

Two Aphrodites depicts the goddess as mythological animals: a carnal she-goat and a languid swan. In her dual forms, the goddess is trapped inside a milk crate, her love and beauty unappreciated in this subterranean space.

A figure Love refers to as the Water Carrier recurs in many of their paintings. Her restraints, combined with the water she carries on her head, refer to a combination of situations women have experienced across time and cultures.

The Water Carrier acts as an avatar for Love's interest in feminism and its many forms and becomes a narrative link between the paintings.

Her watery burden is a nod to traditional head-carrying practices as well as the posture-training method at Victorian finishing schools.

Love's use of the elements earth, air, fire, and water refer to their symbolic definitions as well as the climate crisis. Many of their recent works focus on water, also a symbol of the female body. These works are the focus of their solo exhibition at the gallery in 2020.

Lucia Love attended the School of Visual Arts on a grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, where they studied painting and animation.

They are a co-host of the Art and Labor podcast, where they chronicle the stories of social justice organizing within the arts.

Art and Labor focuses on the human cost of the art world and advocates for fair labor practices for artists, museum workers, art handlers, interns, and anyone traditionally overworked and underpaid in the field.