May 21, 2026
Lynn Aldrich
Romance and Reality Will Kiss One Another
Royale Projects
April 25 - June 6, 2026
Lynn Aldrich
In many senses Lynn Aldrich's work is Duchampian. Her nuanced career spans more than forty years and includes numerous gallery and museum shows, as well as forays into public art. Her witty and conceptually based works ingeniously combine found materials, often including household objects, as well as common items from hardware stores. She transforms them into large scale sculptures that often become visual metaphors for the complexities of the natural world. Her expansive works are filled with visual puns while simultaneously engaging with art history, and scientific inquiry.
The works on view in Romance and Reality Will Kiss One Another are both new and old. The centerpiece of the exhibition is Grid Buster (1989), a room-sized installation. This multifaceted piece takes its point of departure from the German painter Matthias Grunewald's Resurrection from the 1500s. A small reproduction of the work hangs on the wall and is illuminated by a single tiny light which is plugged into eight interlocked surge protectors hanging below it. On the floor is a huge orange, black and green plaid carpet with the shape of Christ's body removed. Theis cutout rises above, centered on an adjacent wall, a silhouette mimicking the body in Grunewald's depiction. Although created in 1989, the work feels very current as it deals with dissociation and issue of power, religion and faith.
All I Know So Far (also from 1989) hangs on a nearby wall. Here, Aldrich cuts apart and horizontally stacks sections of 'flat cactus' paddles making them into rectangles. They are presented on a wooden shelf bookended by bronzed baby shoes. In this curious juxtaposition, the prickly surface of the cactus and the title All I Know So Far implies a potential for danger.
Alongside these older pieces are two newer works: All the Colors Will Bleed and Backyard Bird Count (both 2026). For All the Colors Will Bleed, Aldrich creates a rectangle with more than 100 different small, square paint chips. Attached to each chip are like-colored threads. The individual strands move from the edge of the work to its center where they become a chaotic interwoven pile — a massive tangle of threads — in the shape of an oval. Backyard Bird Count combines three sets of pointed fence pickets in varying tones of gray into a rectangle framing a section of astroturf that contains a smaller painted landscape. Attached to the surface of this combine are numerous bird swings (wires with plastic bars) in varying sizes and colors. The implication is that caged birds inhabit an artificial space that also mirrors the 'real' world.
Reading the materials list for Aldrich's works provides context and content for the pieces. Parch (2010), Free Refill: Never Thirst Again (2023) and Desert Prophet (2026) are made with steel downspouts — vertical conduits connected to gutters that direct water away from the foundations of buildings. Aldrich combines these generic forms, often personifying or combining them to resemble plants or animals. The titles subtly reference water or its lack to direct the reading of the works toward climate change.
Rose Ghost (2015) is a large circular wall relief made from numerous layers of light purple, nylon tulle held in place by similarly shaped thin sheets of clear plastic. This cut out shape is inspired by the rose windows of Chartres Cathedral. Aldrich's work is simultaneously solid and ephemerally ghost-like, suggesting an impermanence not present in the original. Circular forms are also found in Cloud of Unknowing and Through the Oculus (both 2026) where Aldrich collages tools for measuring, images of planets, architectural details with rounded openings, and hand-drawn or painted shapes in shades of blue.
Throughout the gallery space, Aldrich weaves between past and present. Always aware of the relationship between form and function, she continuously transforms the ordinary — be it garden hoses, tree branches, found postcards or wooden dowels — into something extraordinary and beyond expectation. Her human scaled pieces resonate both formally and conceptually. They are at once familiar, yet also other worldly, and offer numerous pathways for contemplation.
Romance and Reality Will Kiss One Another
Royale Projects
April 25 - June 6, 2026
Lynn Aldrich
In many senses Lynn Aldrich's work is Duchampian. Her nuanced career spans more than forty years and includes numerous gallery and museum shows, as well as forays into public art. Her witty and conceptually based works ingeniously combine found materials, often including household objects, as well as common items from hardware stores. She transforms them into large scale sculptures that often become visual metaphors for the complexities of the natural world. Her expansive works are filled with visual puns while simultaneously engaging with art history, and scientific inquiry.
The works on view in Romance and Reality Will Kiss One Another are both new and old. The centerpiece of the exhibition is Grid Buster (1989), a room-sized installation. This multifaceted piece takes its point of departure from the German painter Matthias Grunewald's Resurrection from the 1500s. A small reproduction of the work hangs on the wall and is illuminated by a single tiny light which is plugged into eight interlocked surge protectors hanging below it. On the floor is a huge orange, black and green plaid carpet with the shape of Christ's body removed. Theis cutout rises above, centered on an adjacent wall, a silhouette mimicking the body in Grunewald's depiction. Although created in 1989, the work feels very current as it deals with dissociation and issue of power, religion and faith.
All I Know So Far (also from 1989) hangs on a nearby wall. Here, Aldrich cuts apart and horizontally stacks sections of 'flat cactus' paddles making them into rectangles. They are presented on a wooden shelf bookended by bronzed baby shoes. In this curious juxtaposition, the prickly surface of the cactus and the title All I Know So Far implies a potential for danger.
Alongside these older pieces are two newer works: All the Colors Will Bleed and Backyard Bird Count (both 2026). For All the Colors Will Bleed, Aldrich creates a rectangle with more than 100 different small, square paint chips. Attached to each chip are like-colored threads. The individual strands move from the edge of the work to its center where they become a chaotic interwoven pile — a massive tangle of threads — in the shape of an oval. Backyard Bird Count combines three sets of pointed fence pickets in varying tones of gray into a rectangle framing a section of astroturf that contains a smaller painted landscape. Attached to the surface of this combine are numerous bird swings (wires with plastic bars) in varying sizes and colors. The implication is that caged birds inhabit an artificial space that also mirrors the 'real' world.
Reading the materials list for Aldrich's works provides context and content for the pieces. Parch (2010), Free Refill: Never Thirst Again (2023) and Desert Prophet (2026) are made with steel downspouts — vertical conduits connected to gutters that direct water away from the foundations of buildings. Aldrich combines these generic forms, often personifying or combining them to resemble plants or animals. The titles subtly reference water or its lack to direct the reading of the works toward climate change.
Rose Ghost (2015) is a large circular wall relief made from numerous layers of light purple, nylon tulle held in place by similarly shaped thin sheets of clear plastic. This cut out shape is inspired by the rose windows of Chartres Cathedral. Aldrich's work is simultaneously solid and ephemerally ghost-like, suggesting an impermanence not present in the original. Circular forms are also found in Cloud of Unknowing and Through the Oculus (both 2026) where Aldrich collages tools for measuring, images of planets, architectural details with rounded openings, and hand-drawn or painted shapes in shades of blue.
Throughout the gallery space, Aldrich weaves between past and present. Always aware of the relationship between form and function, she continuously transforms the ordinary — be it garden hoses, tree branches, found postcards or wooden dowels — into something extraordinary and beyond expectation. Her human scaled pieces resonate both formally and conceptually. They are at once familiar, yet also other worldly, and offer numerous pathways for contemplation.