56 HENRY is pleased to present Bagels and Locks, an exhibition of new work by New York-based artist Kate Shepherd. The show, comprised of plywood walls that resemble temporary construction fences in New York City, will be on view from September 22nd through November 121h. 2017. Bagels and Locks marks Shepherd's first exhibition with 56 HENRY.

Kate Shepherd has covered the gallery with plywood to create an environment that resembles a construction site in New York City. The floor is protected with sheets of raw plywood, and the ceiling is covered with a piece of luan, cut to reveal the gallery's fluorescent light overhead. The large windowsill is paneled, painted, hinged, and padlocked to resemble an oversized toolbox. One wall, painted the shade of hunter green stipulated for temporary construction barriers by the building code of New York City, is affixed with a set of doors that sit slightly ajar, chained together and padlocked. Another wall is putty colored and cut with a diamond shaped peephole, covered by a square of Plexiglas. The gallery's largest wall is painted electric blue, and holds a Mick doorframe built from raw particleboard. Shepherd's installation brings a ubiquitous form of provisional architecture into the gallery, using construction methods intended to direct movement or block pedestrian entry to assemble a makeshift environment of saturated color

Shepherd is best known for her rigorously architectonic paintings, rendered on monochromatic grounds of enamel paint. The rich colors of her installation bear a strong relationship to her paintings, as if her panels had grown in scale and encased the gallery. These walls, however, are marked by their patchwork and slapdash approach to craftsmanship, as seen on the street, which is never present in Shepherd's paintings. But Shepherd finds extreme beauty. In this default approach to craftsmanship, which privileges efficiency over presentation, and often produces moments of surprising brilliance. As New York City continues to grow at an astonishing pace miles of these construction facades are rapidly assembled to protect pedestrians and block sight lines, all while trying to disappear into the background. But Bagels and Locks brings the overlooked, temporary architectures that cover New York City into the gallery for inspection, appreciation, and a kind of admiration.

Kate Shepherd (b. 1951. New York) lives and works in New York City. She received her B.A. from Oberlin College in 1982 and her M.F.A. from the School of Visual Arts in 1992. Her work has been the subject of numerous solo presentations both stateside and abroad, including exhibitions at Galerie Lelong, New York and Paris; Anthony Meier Fine Arts, San Francisco; Pace Prints, New York; Charlotte and Philip Hanes Art Gallery, Wake Forest University; Winston-Salem, North Carolina; The Phillips Collection, Washington DC; Hiram Butler Gallery Houston; Barbara Krakow, Boston; the Lannon Foundation, Santa Fe and the Chinati Foundation, Marfa. Her work is frequently featured in important group exhibitions, including recent presentations at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston; the de Young Museum, San Francisco; the Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee; and the Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs. Shepherd's work is held in the permanent collections of numerous public institutions, including the Albright-Knox Any Gallery. Buffalo; the Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore; the Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Paris; the List Visual Arts Center. Massachussetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles; the Menil Collection, Houston; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Phillips Collection, Washington. D.C.; and the Seattle Art Museum, Seattle. Shepherd is the recipient of residencies at the MacDowell Colony, Peterborough; the Chinati Foundation, Marfa; the Lannan Foundation, Santa Fe; and the Dieu Donne Paper Mill, New York. Kate Shepherd is represented by Galerie Lelong, New York and Anthony Meier Fine Arts, San Francisco.