Carmen Neely
just beneath the surface under each word
Lot Closed
June 7, 03:34:36 AM GMT
Estimate
20,000 - 25,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
Carmen Neely
b. 1987
just beneath the surface under each word
Executed in 2025.
Oil on linen
40 x 36 in. (101.6 x 91.4 cm)
Please note that while this auction is hosted on Sothebys.com, it is being administered by the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and all post-sale matters (inclusive of invoicing and property pickup/shipment) will be handled by the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. As such, Sotheby’s will share the contact details for the winning bidders with the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago so that they may be in touch directly post-sale.
This online benefit auction has a 10% buyer’s premium, which will be added to the final hammer price of each sold work. The premium allows the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago to retain more of the proceeds of the sale and offset administrative costs.
Courtesy of the artist and Mariane Ibrahim (Chicago, Paris, Mexico City)
Carmen Neely (b. 1987, Charlotte, NC; lives in Chicago, IL) merges abstraction with personal narrative, exploring memory and identity through painting. Her compositions, characterized by expressive brushstrokes, layered textures, and dynamic forms, blur the boundaries between language and mark-making, transforming gestures into visual records of experience. For example, by layering gestural abstraction and linguistic nuance, just beneath the surface under each word evokes the emotional weight and instability of language. Neely often intertwines sociopolitical and technological themes with deeply personal matters, creating a space where the individual and the collective coexist. She has exhibited widely, with recent shows at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Baltimore; Milwaukee Art Museum; and the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh.