5/16: LIT UP // new works by GURL DON’T BE DUMB: EILEEN MUELLER & JAMIE STEELE

 

Did you listen to Channel Orange on repeat when it came out? This is not an inside joke. I mean, really, the album is addictive. Two artists who met at a residency in Michigan that summer started collaborating and two years later have curated shows, shown work, and offered countless beer bongs to peers at galleries and outside of them. Eileen Mueller and Jamie Steele are photographers who extend research for their individual practices through a joint social project, taking their name from Frank Ocean lyrics. At ACRE in Wisconsin last summer the two made a series of work that will be shown at Forever & Always, opening May 16. Candidly irreverent, Gurl Don’t Be Dumb replaces white with pink and clearing throats with laughter, bringing the party to the gallery. GDBD is not an overarching synthesis of feminism, anti-feminism, anti-gender, nor gender identity politics. GDBD is Jamie and Eileen making contact with playful material, creating relationships of mischievous viewership and interaction, and inviting everyone along for the ride – shotgun.