Metal Madonna, Georgia Gardner Gray’s forthcoming exhibition at Longlati in Shanghai, paints a narrative cross-section of the contemporary urban condition, casting a troupe of female figures in pursuit of social transcendence. This is not a presentation of the traditionally submissive muse, but rather a theater of self-optimisation, absolute control, and urban solitude. Gray’s women embody the “ascendant” female archetype of this era; ambitious and strong-willed, they are presented as hardened symbols of a ruthless social hierarchy.
The title Metal Madonna is itself a contradiction; it rejects notions of the passive “Madonna” icon, instead introducing a determined figure who is mechanical and unwavering. Caught in a never-ending routine of self-optimisation, a monastic lifestyle centred around diet, exercise and sleep speaks to a contemporary faith system that lacks a transcendental higher power, with every decision pointing towards an undetermined goal.
Georgia Gardner Gray, The Christmas Party, 2025, oil on canvas, 200×240 cm. Courtesy of the artist and Sadie Coles HQ, London. Photo: Joerg Lohse
Collective conformity presents through ubiquitous uniforms and activities – athleisurewear during a yoga class, corporate dress at the office Christmas party – and positions Gray’s protagonists as followers of a cosmopolitan, tribalistic instinct. Only in private moments, divested of societal expectation – unwinding with a glass of wine, or bathing by candlelight – do we glimpse a state of rare relaxation, hovering somewhere between exhaustion and ecstasy.
The city itself becomes a principal character in Gray’s narrative; under construction and endlessly shapeshifting, it mimics its inhabitants in its own desire for self-improvement. In this hyper-accelerated environment, the individual’s relentless pursuit of singularity leads to rigorous self-governance, turning the complex urban chaos into a psychological space of control. These contemporary hermits transform the city into a spiritual testing ground, embracing the belief that “a true hermit lives in a bustling place”. They are simultaneously caught between collapse and control – a tension that conceals their heightened inner worlds, capturing the mental and physical costs the ascendant female archetype pays in pursuit of the perfect idealised self.
About the Artist
Georgia Gardner Gray, Self Portrait AD, 2022, oil on canvas, 80 x 80 x 2.7 cm. Courtesy of the artist and Sadie Coles HQ, London. Photo: Katie Morrison
Georgia Gardner Gray (b. 1988, New York) lives and works between Mallorca, Spain and New York, USA. She graduated with a BFA from Cooper Union, New York, in 2011. Gardner Gray’s practice encompasses both painting and theatre, presenting the roles and archetypes that we assume and create in response to contemporary pressures. Historical, pop-cultural, mimetic and stylistic references bring a tension to her work – opening a field for navigating the simulacra of everyday life.
Recent solo exhibitions include CHRYSALIS, Regen Projects, Los Angeles (2025); La Morosa Española, Sadie Coles HQ, London (2024); He Bombs, Reena Spaulings, New York (2023); Travellers, Gaylord Fine Arts, Los Angeles (2023); NDE, Sadie Coles HQ, London (2022); Works 2015 – 2018, Kunsthalle Lingen (2018); Concorde, UKS/Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo (2017); and Precious Provincials, Kunstverein Hamburg (2017). She has also staged performances at the Schinkel Pavillon, Berlin (2019) and with the Volksbuehne, Berlin (2018).
