Carolee Thea – Deconstructing Identity

An exhibition of work by New York artist, writer and curator Carolee Thea exploring questions of identity through constructed paintings and figurative sculptures from the 1980s. About SPACS Gallery presents Deconstructing Identity, an exhibition of work by New York artist, writer and curator Carolee Thea, curated by Sabrina Wirth and on view October 22 through December 5, 2026. At a time when artificial intelligence is challenging our understanding of what it means to be human, questions of identity have taken on renewed significance. What defines us? How much of who we are is shaped by personal experience, and how much by the perceptions and expectations of others? These questions find unexpected resonance in the work of Carolee Thea, whose constructed paintings of the 1980s challenge conventional ideas of portraiture and the boundaries between painting and sculpture. Working intuitively with discarded picture frames, branches, fragments of wood and everyday objects, Thea created compositions that transform familiar materials into something entirely new. Objects removed from their original contexts acquire different meanings through their relationships with one another. Even the frame, traditionally used to contain an image, becomes an active part of the work. Through the act of construction, Thea begins to dismantle established ways of seeing. In his catalogue essay for Thea's 1987 exhibition, critic John Yau examined how these works challenge the social conventions embedded in portraiture. In Horror Vacua (1985), an empty oval takes the place of the expected portrait, questioning whether identity can ever be adequately represented through an image. In Skyground (The Bride) (1985), the image of a rhinoceros challenges our assumptions about what we expect to see and what we believe we can know about a subject. Yet the works also invite a more personal interpretation: although Thea's selection and arrangement of objects were intuitive rather than consciously autobiographical, could these assemblages reveal something of the artist herself? Could the fragments we collect, the objects we preserve and the relationships we create between them form an unconscious portrait of who we are? In The Wedding (1987), the tangled assemblage of wooden strips, branches and found objects suggests both union and fragmentation. Thea's choice of these materials, coupled with the suggestive title, invites a personal reflection on the complexities of human relationships, questioning the social conventions of marriage and the contradictions of lived experience. In "Deconstructing Identity", this is the anchor piece that unifies the whole show. After all, marriage has traditionally been a defining force in shaping a woman's identity. Presented together nearly four decades after their creation, and shown for the first time with Thea's figurative sculptures, these works complete a portrait of self-discovery and self-actualization: the constructed paintings represent moments of questioning, while the figures embody a confident and unambiguous sense of self. Through these artworks, identity is presented as neither fixed nor entirely self-determined. Like Thea's constructions, it takes shape through an ongoing process of assembling, questioning and reinterpreting the fragments of our experience. Deconstructing Identity is not simply a reconsideration of Thea's work from four decades ago, but an invitation to see it through the lens of the present. At a time when the boundaries between human creativity and artificial intelligence are increasingly blurred, her work reminds us that identity is not something fixed or easily defined, but an ongoing process of discovery. In this sense, the exhibition is as much about the questions we face today as it is about the art of the past. Read more Toggle Mixed media Sculpture Painting