The Peep Show
SEPTEMBER 13, 2003 – OCTOBER 18, 2003
Billy Colbert and Sandra Luckett
Inspired by the risqué past of the 14th Street Corridor and its former burlesque side-of-life tenants, The Peep Show evokes a sensuous and titillating experience of urban life where the new world of "urban life-style" condominiums and food museums now prosper. While gentrification may lend itself to safer streets and greater opportunities to happily purchase the suburban American dream sold daily through mass media, The Peep Show harkens back to the erotic mystique and seduction of General Hooker's ladies, go-go clubs, striptease and the temptations of what may be revealed behind the peep show curtain.
This is the departure point for the dynamic, multi-layered works of Billy Colbert and Sandra Luckett. Incorporating collected materials of ephemeral glamour, color, sparkle, transparency, ornate decor, fashion, pop-culture and nostalgia, Luckett takes the viewer on a spiritual journey hinting at the intoxicating world of a showgirl's powder room, a lady of the evening's boudoir. Composing imagery, literature, and nature in to a painted atmosphere, Colbert's visual folklore captivates the audience with his glimpses into the lives of the women represented in this psychedelic new body of work. Focusing on the hypnotizing play of warm colors, Colbert's richly textured silk screens here referencing 60's pornography, create goddess-like images of femininity that are highlighted by Luckett's undulating wall reliefs.
Sandra Luckett, a recent graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University's MFA painting program, has been working in residency at Transformer since mid-August developing her site-specific work for The Peep Show. Luckett was featured in the 2002 Options exhibition curated by Victoria Reis. Billy Colbert, one of 5 commissioned artists featured in the "Shaw Wall" of the new Washington Convention Center, received his MFA in Painting from the University of Delaware in 2000.
Images courtesy of Jayme McLellan / Civilian Art Projects, 2003.