NADA New York 2024

These paintings are what remains from Griffo’s The Family series, most of which she destroyed in the late ’80s during a drunken rage prior to a second stay at rehab. A fourth was left unfinished prior to her departure for her first rehab in 1984, and has only recently been completed. Like all of her paintings, they are formally governed by two elements symbolizing the dichotomy she interprets: a painted fantasy and a reality depicted in graphite. They combine characters from modern and traditional fairy tales with cropped and masterfully rendered figures from Albrecht Dürer engravings to illuminate the dynamics of abuse. In Mother, we see a partially drawn figure of Pain from Dürer’s Hercules at the Crossroads, where the demi-god must choose between Pleasure and Pain, in the act of striking down ornate pillars; the Mickey Mouse on the room’s wallpaper witnesses the scene in shock.