Artspace & Phaidon, in partnership with Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, are pleased to announce a new limited edition by Skowhegan alumna, Christina Quarles, entitled Magic Hour. Launched on the occasion of Skowhegan’s 75th Anniversary, proceeds from the sale of the edition benefit the program in honor of Skowhegan alumnus and Trustee David Beitzel (1958–2019) and Darren Walker.

The new exclusive edition Magic Hour (2016/2021) will debut during the preview of Frieze New York art fair, at the Skowhegan booth D4 on Wednesday, May 5 at 11am EDT. An edition of 50, the benefit print is priced at $2,500 USD each, with proceeds from the sale supporting Skowhegan’s summer program. 

The edition presents a no-longer extant fresco that Quarles created while she was at Skowhegan during the summer of 2016. Magic Hour showcases Quarles’ seductive and expressive technique and features polymorphous figures arranged in contorted positions bent to the constraints of the picture plane. This unique approach to figuration, as well as Quarles’ mastery of dissolving boundaries between figuration and abstraction, has catapulted her into the upper echelons of the contemporary art canon since her residency at Skowhegan; just one year after completing her MFA at Yale, Jeffrey Deitch dubbed her “the hottest artist in America right now”.

“A lot of the gestural language of my work was well on its way by the time I was at Skowhegan, but there were some key developments in my painting that would happen that summer, specifically that afternoon I made this fresco.”
-Christina Quarles