Opening Reception: Thursday, November 19, 6–9:30 PM

14BC Gallery presents CRYPTICAL ENVELOPMENT, an exhibition of over 80 of painter Joan LeMay’s works on paper from FRIENDS OF THE DEVIL: West Texas Cowboys, Brown-Eyed Women, and Other Sunshine Daydreamers from the Songs of the Grateful Dead (Random House, 2026).

Continuing a collaboration with her and writer Alex Pappademas’s critically acclaimed art-and-text book Quantum Criminals: Ramblers, Wild Gamblers, and Other Sole Survivors from the Songs of Steely Dan (University of Texas Press, 2023), LeMay’s gouache paintings for FRIENDS OF THE DEVIL approach the history and cultural mythology of and surrounding the Grateful Dead through the characters, narratives, and archetypes embedded in their songs. This body of work expands on the character-centric methodology of the first book. Fully abstract pieces, environments in which characters live, and non-portrait paintings pull from Pappademas’s journeys through the band’s cultural phenomena.

LeMay’s approach to the Dead began with the living. In the inclusive spirit of the fandom itself, she invited current-day Deadheads to serve as models for her character portraits. Representing members of the community that gave the band’s mythology its enduring life was a crucial part of her process.

Instead of stylistically replicating the band’s legendary iconography, this work is in LeMay’s own visual language, even when that language directly points back to the Dead’s. The Estimated Prophet, Cosmic Charlie, P.T. Barnum, Wolfman Jack, Hugh Hefner, real (not dancing) bears, a Magritte-inspired skull, and a painting of Jerry as the Mona Lisa mesh art-historical and popular-cultural ideas throughout.

Also on view are previously unseen portraits—including those of Elvis Costello and Greg Ginn—that did not make it into the final publication. The addition of these unpublished paintings offers a broader view into the development of LeMay’s process during the book’s creation.

The artist will be present at 14BC Gallery throughout the exhibition's three-day run.