Get Well Soon
Petra Collins
February 1 - 15, 2022
trolling endlessly and then you die, 2021
Digital C-print
60 x 40 in (152.4 x 101.6 cm)
COUNTY is pleased to present Get Well Soon, a solo exhibition by Petra Collins.
One of the most influential photographers of her generation, Collins uses her prodigious narrative imagination to create stylized and seductive dream worlds, which she invests with the potency of lived experience. Mixing elements of fantasy and autobiography, she explores the complexities of self-image in the age of social media, often turning her empathetic lens on the lives of young women as they negotiate their public and private personas.
For her latest exhibition, Get Well Soon, Collins conjures the marvelous and the surreal through photographs, neon pieces, and a smartphone-inspired film installation featuring two women in an ordinary suburban home who are undergoing a supernatural transformation. With make-up and prosthetics, Collins prematurely ages her models, turning them into uncanny avatars of themselves. Meanwhile, a glowing white orb appears in their midst, and viewers are left to ponder its origins and whether it is the source of their strange metamorphosis. The title is a tongue-in-cheek reference to a tweet by Paris Hilton—“Jealousy is a disease… get well soon”—which Collins has also fabricated as a neon wall piece for the exhibition. Although couched in irony, the phrase “get well soon” holds a deeper meaning for the artist, who struggled with body dysmorphia while modeling as a teenager and who now, at the age of twenty-nine, faces the familiar problem of how to mature and evolve in a culture that too often prizes youth over experience. The models in Get Well Soon grapple with the toxicity of social media and the need for self-care in the face of their looming adulthood. Collins explores these themes with a mixture of humor, sincerity, and a highly accomplished cinematic eye for atmospheric beauty. Rather than steering viewers toward a definitive conclusion, her images play with narrative ambiguity and encourage multiple readings from the personal to the poetic.
Petra Collins is a Canadian-born artist who has been working as a professional photographer since the age of fifteen. Her innovative use of gel filters and pastel colors set the stylistic tone for editorial and fashion photography throughout the 2010’s. An acclaimed filmmaker, as well, Collins recently received a Grammy nomination for Best Music Video (2022) and is currently working on her first feature-length narrative film. In 2017, she presented a performance piece at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, titled Petra Collins: In Search of Us, with collaborator Madelyne Beckles. She has published seven photography books in the past seven years: Fairytales (2021), Miért vagy te, ha lehetsz én is? (2020), OMG, I’m Being Killed (2019), Six by XX (2018), Petra Collins: Coming of Age (2017), Babe (2015), and Discharge (2015). She has had solo booths at leading art fairs, including Art Basel Hong Kong, CONTACT Photography Festival (Toronto, Canada), and Uncontaminated Art Festival (Oslo, Norway). Recent solo exhibitions include Praz-Delavallade Gallery (Paris, France), BASE Cultural Center (Milan, Italy), and Evergold (San Francisco, CA). In addition, she has curated several exhibitions: Gynolandscape and PussyPat (New York, NY), Strange Magic (Los Angeles, CA), Literally Bye at Art Basel Miami Beach, and Comforter at SFAQ Project Space (San Francisco, CA). Her work has been featured in numerous publications, including The New York Times, Vogue, I.D., Dazed & Confused, NY Magazine, Elle, Glamour, Vanity Fair, Purple, Interview, and Vice. She is the founder of The Ardorous, an art collective that promotes creative collaboration and visibility for young women artists. Get Well Soon is her first solo exhibition at COUNTY.
Logan R. Beitmen