Aubrey Rhodes, The Birds, at Kenneth Paul Lesko Gallery

Several years ago, Aubrey Rhodes embarked on a challenge to paint the largest canvas of her career. The daunting size of the blank canvas beckoned for a subject that would carry its heroic scale. Ideas manifested incrementally. Individual faces of women emerged, one at a time—women of different races, cultures, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Some women were in blissful states of happiness, while others were depressed or angry. Some women drank champagne, while others cried out in anguish. These faces populated the canvas, creating a powerful composition, but there was still something missing. These disparate faces had taken on individual identities for the artist, and she felt a desire to unite them, and free them from the intangible barriers that seemed to confine them. In the spaces between them, Aubrey painted birds in flight among the women, coalescing the final imagery of the painting, and uplifting and elevating the compelling narrative.

Aubrey’s finished monumental painting eventually became the impetus for her most recent series, The Birds. This new series of paintings is a celebration of women and the desired freedom to pursue various roles throughout one’s life. That freedom is represented in the symbol of a bird, both the hummingbird which blesses each painting with its presence, and the women/bird hybrids, spanning the scope of the series.

Painted on artfully designed, contextual collages, each female figure is adorned with feathers and flowers. Some figures hold cigarettes or nail polish in their taloned hands, while others speak into headset microphones, or contemplate a nest of eggs. The series depicts party girls, mothers, vulnerable survivors, travelers and adventurers. These could be the stories of many women, or the story arc of an individual woman. In this thoughtful series, they are given the freedom to pursue a lifetime of roles.

KENNETH PAUL LESKO GALLERY
1305 West 80th Street

Cleveland, Ohio 44102

kennethpaullesko.com

216.631.6719

EVENT:

Aubrey Rhodes: The Birds, November 21–February 14, 2026