Two solo exhibitions currently on view at Last Rites Gallery in New York, Kelley Hensing's "The Animal Within" and N.C. Winters's "Overgrowth" examine humankind's darker impulses through folkloric visuals and occult imagery. Winters's sculptural paintings with hand-crafted float frames depict characters undergoing processes of decay, their faces being consumed by plants and fungi. The artist explores the idea of being overtaken by nature as a metaphor for the voraciousness of an untamed, unruly mind.
Painter Kelley Hensing creates surreal, narrative works with an antiquated feel. Her portraits of anachronistic characters — Victorian ladies, wood nymphs, carnival workers — are placed in ornate, wooden frames that add to their timeworn aesthetic. Hensing is getting ready to debut her latest body of work for her solo show, "The Animal Within," at Last Rites Gallery in New York.