Ana Benaroya: Swept Away, at Venus Over Manhattan’s new gallery space on Great Jones Street, was across from the Jay Milder show. Two great shows that could not have been more different. I loved both.

Women’s bodies and their relationship to water is Benaroya’s central theme. The show included seven paintings and seven works on paper.

“Ana Benaroya’s paintings depict substantial women whose extravagant musculatures gleefully upset traditional expectations of dainty femininity. Her work constructs a fresh female gaze that recasts women in dominant roles, endowing them with an assertive, idiosyncratic and frankly sexual presence. Referencing art historical and contemporary sources, Benaroya explores the dynamics of queer desire, in which bodies are on display for themselves and on their own terms. In compositions animated by complex networks of attraction, Benaroya makes visible forms of lesbian desire that are typically rendered latent or invisible.” (Venus Over Manhattan)

I thought the works on paper were particularly special.

Of course I had to find out more about Benaroya. Read this to learn more about this young artist. And yes, I saw the show more than once.