Alex Katz once said “I'm not interested in narrative, I'm interested in presence.” I always found this interesting considering Mr. Katz has spent a career painting his wife and friends, as they age, in a continuous fashion, in what one could only assume is a lifelong narrative of someone's personal life. Molly Bounds' work reminds me of Katz in that they have a presence and a narrative of friends and family, powerful moments frozen in time that show an aging and growth of the figure and the person painting the figure. Bounds has honed in on this aesthetic that is timeless and an examination of just what time is. For a show called Stephanie Prepares, which I can't help but think of the Velvet Underground's "Stephanie Says" as a sort of enduring song that feeds into that talk of time, Bounds digs deeper into figures as both muses and "presence." Each seems to stand on their own but are connected in color, in pose, in repose, of comfort and command. They are loud in that they are so quiet. —Evan Pricco

https://bozomag.com/molly-bounds