Early Paradise

Growing up on a small livestock farm doesn’t typically bring to mind a career in the arts, but it proved to present no shortage of inspiration for Kat Lyons. In her first U.K. solo exhibition “Early Paradise” (open through January 22 at Pilar Corrias‘s Saville Row gallery), the artist’s thought-provoking surrealist compositions navigate the intersection of grief and labor that comes with a profession that is largely molded by necessity in our capitalist system. Utilizing her practice to face this reality, Lyons has painted in great detail works like the consideration of an ex-racing horse, Portrait of Lonely, a contemplation of the relationship between cows and grass where the animals graze among their own organs, titled Earthward Love, and The Candler (Incubation), which is a tribute to chickens whose lives serve the purpose of laying infertile eggs.