This Spring HEDGE Gallery is thrilled to present Pocket Full of Posies, a new series of richly saturated oil paintings by Katy Richards.

Still lifes and the human figure are subject matters for her recent work, and she reveals them under layers of color and floral patterns, almost as if old wallpaper was being removed from the surface of her canvases. 

Symbolism is embedded throughout her paintings, exploring themes of desire, beauty, concealment, death and temporality.  

Katy states, “I use repeating imagery like the skull and flower as a reminder of the inevitability of death, and the fragility of life. The flower's bloom, especially a peony which shows up in multiple works, is so brief. Flowers wither and die, a reminder of our own fate.”

The show's title comes from a verse from the nursery rhyme "Ring Around the Rosie”. According to folklore the rhyme refers to the bubonic plague. Posies are a small bouquet of flowers one would carry in order to mask the smell of death. The contrast between the playfulness of the rhyme and the heaviness of death becomes a theme that Richards’ paintings embody. 

Join us for a Preview Reception on Wednesday, March 15 or the Opening on Friday March 17, 2023.