Sweet Summer Goodbye
Curatorial Statement
Sweet Summer Goodbye is Beau Carnes’ debut solo show. It is an exploration of the sentimental, a dream derived from the nostalgic memories of the summers of youth, and a purposeful dissection of the desire to return to simpler days. It is an acknowledgement that the seemingly perpetuity of youth is only as deep as your neighborhood swimming pool – you reach the bottom far too fast. This show provides a soft landing spot for those who wish they could go back to their summer days.
In Sweet Summer Goodbye, Carnes dives into the iconography of the archetypal American summer, deconstructing and reforming the cultural themes into characters, surreal landscapes, and impossible flowers. Carnes’ playful and humorous style explores our shared cultural roots, resulting in work that is colorful, jubilant, and mournful, but whose momentum is never stopped. It is a conscious plunge into the often rose-tinted glasses through which the summers of youth are frequently viewed. Though Sweet Summer Goodbye focuses on saying goodbye to the summer of the not-so-distant past, Carnes’ paintings never feel like a finality; their subtle humor points out that time will go on, uncaring whether we want it to or not.
