March 11 - April 15, 2023
Kapp Kapp is pleased to present Two Heads, an exhibition with twin artists, Haylie and Sydnie Jimenez, which marks both their first exhibition at the gallery as well as their New York debut. Working both congruently alongside each other and collaboratively, Haylie and Sydnie’s narrative ceramic-centric practice pays homage to the people in their lives, emphasizing the codes of youthful, punk, rebellious style which make up their figurative universe.
In many ways, Haylie and Sydnie’s practices mirror their relationship as twin sisters – while both siblings investigate similar motifs, they part at their technical and structural foundations, both seeking different means to illustrate their shared thesis. While Sydnie’s practice is most consumed by ceramic, translating her characters into just-smaller-than life freestanding figures, Haylie, whose practice is rooted primarily in drawing and painting, has begun translating her drawing practice into wall-mounted ceramic paintings concurrent with her works on paper. Both sisters have been in residence at The Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, Montana, which has allowed the artists access to large-scale kilns, directly contributing to the scale of Sydnie’s ceramic figures while encouraging Haylie further towards the medium.
Haylie and Sydnie’s practices converge with ceramic, encouraging their individual universes to grow further into one. Together, the sisters produce elaborate and large-scale wall-mounted ceramic paintings, melding elements of both of their individual techniques and considerations while becoming something entirely new altogether. As often said with twins, the adage goes, “Two heads are better than one,” and this can certainly be said of the Jimenez sisters.
Take, for example, The Tricksters (Two Heads Are Better Than One), 2023, one of Sydnie’s large-scale figurative sculptures, which, at its surface, can be taken as an individual artwork produced by Sydnie alone. The surface itself does not reveal the full truth, though – Haylie’s marks adorn the figure’s body, too, in the form of unique tattoos, reaching again into her element of drawing and painting. Haylie and Sydnie’s parallel, and occasionally perpendicular, practices illustrate the natural, additive relationship of twins, two distinct orbits moving at once in sync and apart. To separate the sisters’ practices is to deny the whole picture.
Two Heads will be on view at Kapp Kapp through April 15.
Haylie and Sydnie Jimenez (b. 1997, Orlando, FL) live and work in Helena, Montana. Haylie and Sydnie earned their BFAs from School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL. Recent exhibitions include New Image Art, Los Angeles; Kavi Gupta Gallery, Chicago; Mindy Solomon Gallery, Miami; and Roots and Culture, Chicago.