Lauren Satlowski: Not All Clues Are Paintings But All Paintings Are Clues

Timothy Taylor is pleased to announce Not All Clues Are Paintings But All Paintings Are Clues, an exhibition of new canvases by Lauren Satlowski. Opening on 30 October, the artist’s debut presentation with the gallery will feature paintings that explore the surreal and sometimes sublime aspects of our most mundane activities and encounters.

In Satlowski’s uncanny, meticulously rendered paintings, mismatched objects—some familiar, others strange—are arranged within twilight landscapes or ambiguous interiors, where ethereal and refracted light evokes a sense of body horror and alienation. She views her approach like that of a production designer, employing objects as props that assist a greater narrative and invite free association. Her labour-intensive process heightens everyday materials, imbuing disposable goods and tchotchkes with a sense of the sacred. Painted in vivid detail—the dimensionality of glass jars and figurines is captured such that the objects appear to sit on top of the canvas—her work plays with the accessibility of photorealist modalities, creating images that glimmer between recognisability and abstraction.

Satlowski’s most recent body of work looks at objects, substances, and processes that are pervasive in a typical life at work. Here, coffee and its attendant contexts and apparatuses serve as a metaphor for the flows of work rituals. Several of the paintings on view feature souvenir mugs or single-use cups emblazoned with decorative patterns and images. We see references to work environments, sterile desks and chairs, but also stretches of glistening viscera. Spills, splashes, and stains—sometimes blood-like and sometimes reminiscent of colour field painting—recall bodily fluids, but also art historical engagements with paint. Together, these images elevate the banalities of daily ritual to almost supernatural realms. Incorporating intestines alongside elysian imagery, the artist evokes the tension between moments of transcendence and the vulnerable realities of the body. As in her other bodies of work, Satlowski’s chosen subjects recall notions of—and reactions to—kitsch; in particular, a formulation from Milan Kundera, who describes kitsch as, “the absolute denial of shit, in both the literal and figurative senses of the word; kitsch excludes everything from its purview which is essentially unacceptable in human Existence.”

With her distinct vernacular, Satlowski participates in a lineage of historical surrealism that responds to the ways in which perception and emotion are shaped by social and political upheaval and technological change. Her paintings reflect the specific absurdity of the contemporary world. The paintings Fallers Office and Office Dumpo (both 2025) feature a doodle of a cartoonish figure falling face first on the floor, surrounded by overturned office furniture, airborne papers, and spilled beverages. The work holds multiple perspectives, durations, and registers of image-making together, suggesting utter disjunction.