ANDREW RAFACZ is thrilled to announce Don’t Eat the Glue, a solo exhibition of new paintings and objects from Griffin Goodman. The exhibition opens Friday, May 31st and continues through Saturday, July 13th, 2024. This is the artist’s second solo exhibition with the gallery.

With his newest body of work, Griffin Goodman navigates the turbulence of adolescence, continuing to reference popular culture, personal and art history, and our relationship to media. Each serve as a conduit, and Goodman weaves these seemingly disparate elements together into a layered visual document of his own introspection and revelation, against the cultural backdrop of his time growing up.

Presenting a series of new large-scale paintings and unique objects (cast and adorned glue bottles, found desks with their melamine surfaces scrawled into and painted), Goodman confronts the viewer with a decidedly rawer examination of teenage existence, unapologetically exposing the fragility and resilience that define this formative stage of life. Synthesizing bold, colorful imagery and poetic, often unexpected symbolism, he addresses experiences with alienation, identity, sexuality, and the search for belonging.

While the results have more gravity and complexity overall than in previous bodies of work, Goodman’s visual language still maintains a sense of joy and playfulness, inviting viewers to decipher hidden narratives and symbolic motifs. Through a thoughtfully articulated tension between chaos and order, he aims to get at the essence of adolescence—a delicate balance between the desire for stability and the allure of rebellion.

Goodman explains, ‘My paintings serve as both a mirror and a map, reflecting the tumultuous teenage wasteland and our current culture, while guiding viewers through its labyrinthine depths. It is my hope that within these dense and vibrant works one may find solace, inspiration, and a renewed appreciation for the complexities of youth.’

GRIFFIN GOODMAN (American, b. 1995) lives and works in Chicago, IL. Goodman received an MFA in 2019 from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and a BFA in 2017 from the Ringling College of Art and Design. Recent solo exhibitions include: All Star Press (Chicago, IL) and ANDREW RAFACZ (Chicago, IL). Recent group exhibitions include: Color Club (Chicago, IL), A Very Serious Gallery (Chicago, IL), APPortfolio & Apol Gallery (Tokyo, Japan), Moosey Art (London, UK), The Latent Space, (Chicago, IL), Stupid Krap! (Sunshine Coast, Australia), Suomei M50 Gallery (Shanghai, China), the Sarasota Art Center (Sarasota, FL), and the Elmhurst Art Museum (Chicago, IL). He has exhibited nationally in art fairs, and his work is in numerous private collections.

Official Website

More events on this date

Tags: andrew rafacz, Chicago, Griffin Goodman, Griffin Goodman: Don't Eat the Glue, West Town