Conduit Gallery will present "Been on My Way," a solo exhibition of new paintings by Dallas based artist, Desrieé Vaniecia. The exhibition will be the first at the gallery for the artist.

In "Been on My Way," five large scale-female figures depicted in Flashe paint on linen are larger than life and reside in their respective compositions in various states of seated pose. As a body of work, the paintings are an ambitious project conceptualized by Vaniecia and created with funding awarded the artist by the Dallas Museum of Art’s Arch and Anne Giles Kimbrough Award in early 2020.

Vaniecia, an artist known for her bold and elegantly pared-down compositions of black female figures, began this body of work with a photograph of her maternal grandmother in her early 20s. With this as the first of five depictions, Vaniecia continued to add portraits of women that reference her personal journey through life to date. Each painting depicts a woman in Vaniecia’s life that have pushed not only the artist, but the artist’s entire family, forward. The action of commemorating through paint, compels the artist’s intention that she for her own part continually push legacy and family forward for future generations. In addition to the five large canvases, a suite of smaller paintings that represent personal objects related to each woman will be on view.

While the paintings in the exhibition depict very specific individuals and relationships, Vaniecia’s formal choices in rendering the figures with simplified features and solid blocks of color compels each viewer to bring their own relational considerations to the work and weave together the universal with the personal.

The exhibition will remain on display through January 2.