Step into the vast horizons of Chloe West’s new solo show Games of Chance at HARPER’s in New York, and you’ll find yourself caught between two worlds: the meticulous still lifes of 17th‑century Europe and the rugged, sun‑bleached landscapes of the modern West. Born and raised amid Wyoming’s soaring peaks and sweeping plains, West brings a lifetime of Western lore into conversation with Dutch Golden Age techniques—resulting in a body of work at once eerily familiar and utterly surprising.
At the heart of Games of Chance are canvases so sharply detailed they feel three‑dimensional: knives glinting, animal bones bleached white, fabric textures so tactile you imagine you could run your fingers across them. Yet it is West’s deployment of these elements—paired with her own likeness in cowboy attire—that transforms ordinary Western tropes into a stage for magical realism.
Take “Cowboy Philosopher” (2024–25), an imposing 84×68‑inch oil on linen that greets visitors with the artist seated before a mountain lion skull. A celestial tapestry drapes her table, its starry folds invoking the alchemist’s chambers of Salomon Koninck’s 1635 A Philosopher, while her introspective gaze meets ours directly. Here, West reframes the cowboy as contemplative scholar rather than stoic gunslinger. The skull, knives, and thorns echo the memento mori tradition—reminders of mortality—but West’s confident posture hints at life’s persistent renewal under the relentless Western sun.
Similarly, in “Gored Cowboy” (2024–25), West presents herself astride a rearing horse, satin bandana fluttering, against a Utah‑style backdrop of towering buttes and endless sky. The title’s reference to mythic violence is undercut by the painting’s stillness: the rider’s calm expression and the horse’s halted stride form a tableau of suspended narrative. Light and shadow carve out every muscle and crease, reminding us that even in the most romanticized West, danger and beauty are inseparable.
Smaller works in the exhibition carry the same blend of reverence and subversion. In “Hand with Opossum Skull” (24×20 inches), a dainty Western hand clasps a diminutive opossum skull—its empty eye sockets gazing into desert horizons—underscoring the cyclical dance of death and desert rebirth. “Pocketknife” (16×12 inches) renders a lone folding blade on a sky‑blue kerchief with such crisp precision you can almost hear it clicking open. These intimate studies borrow from still life masters yet pulse with frontier tension: even the most mundane objects hint at survival, at stories scratched into canyon walls.
West’s palette—earthy siennas warmed by ochre, cooled by cobalt skies—anchors her paintings in recognizable Western motifs. Yet it is her European art‑historical references that give them uncanny depth. A 48×38‑inch “Trapper’s Still Life” suspends antlers and bleached bone on soft pink drapery, recalling Flemish flower pieces that celebrate transience while calling viewers to linger. Her “Pearled Back” (58×46 inches) presents a line of animal vertebrae descending a woman’s spine, transforming human and animal anatomy into a single elegiac statement on shared mortality.
Throughout Games of Chance, West repeatedly inserts herself into these tableaux—cowgirl hat askew, denim and leather pressed to her skin—reclaiming a Western iconography long dominated by male narratives. In “Portrait with Capped Skull” (58×48 inches), she holds a small animal skull before her eye, its smooth bone contrasting with her vibrant red Western shirt. The painting nods to reliquaries and portraiture from centuries past, yet the subject’s confidence disrupts any notion of passive muse.
By juxtaposing her own figure with objects of danger and decay—thorns, scissors, desert bones—West destabilizes the myth of the hyper‑masculine frontier. She reminds us that the West has always been a realm of paradox: a place where isolation breeds both introspection and myth‑making. And, much like the alchemists who peered into skulls and star charts, West’s cowgirl figures invite us to consider mortality, identity, and the stories we inherit.
Games of Chance remains on view at HARPER’s through May 10. As you wander among glittering skulls and dusky ridgelines, allow yourself to drift between eras—where Dutch masters meet desperadoes and every bone, blade, and drape becomes part of an ongoing conversation about time, place, and the art of reinvention.
