(Click press release for larger view, text below.)
Jenkins Johnson Gallery is pleased to present “Plugged In,” a group exhibition of forward-thinking artists working with the electronic arts. All of the artists
featured take contemporary approaches to their conceptual missions and use non-traditional media. The exhibition will run from September 15 through October 29, 2011 with an opening reception on Thursday, September 15th from 6:00 – 8:00 pm.
Seattle based artist Jeremy Bert, focuses his practice on the installation of electric signs and large-scale lighting projects. His text-based works reclaim letters from the dismantled signage of defunct businesses. “Sustainable re-appropriation of discarded materials is a liberating process and reflects prevailing concerns in the world today,” Bert states, and the discarded brand imagery draws attention to the uncertain future of contemporary American culture and the economy. When businesses and banks fail, where do their signs go and what do these emblems of corporate culture now mean? Bert has taught neon classes at The Pikchuck Glass School in Stanwood, WA and has been exhibited at the Museum of Neon Art in Los Angeles; McLeod Residence, Seattle; Gather Gallery, Seattle; and Priceless Works, Seattle.
Andrew Bovasso uses lens-based media to produce documents that fuse personal subject matter with universally understood constructs, such as life/death, time, distance, multiplicity, emotional layers, and light/dark. He focuses on using the camera as a vehicle to connect holes in time and bind specific memories that could not resonate as they were occurring. Bovasso has exhibited widely at such institutions as Photo Center Northwest, Seattle; Friedman Benda Gallery, New York; Midwest Center for Photography, Wichita; Spattered Columns, New York; and Rabbitholestudio, Brooklyn. His book,Conversations with Dan McNulty in Jersey City is part of the permanent collection of the indiePhotobook Library in Washington D.C.
Daniele Buetti is a Swiss artist working in photography, video, sound, drawing, light box, sculpture, and digitally assisted work. Buetti makes use of advertising tools to expose the frailty of popular culture, explore our perceptions of beauty, and reveal the omnipotence of the media in our society. In Buetti’s works, beautiful colors and figures merge with light reveal unspoken feelings of ambivalence and despair, asking what function the role of media plays in the formation of identity, and questioning whether society can form identity without the media’s influence. Buetti uses light to attract the viewer in the same seductive way that the media uses beauty, forcing us to realize the inherent manipulation. Buetti is in the permanent collection of public and private institutions worldwide including, Fotomuseum, Winterthur, Switzerland; Kunstmuseum Bern, Switzerland; MUSAC, Castilla y León, Spain; Musée de l'Elysée, Lausanne, Switzerland; and Thyssen-Bornemisza Contemporary Art Foundation, Salzburg, Austria.
Tim Etchells, widely known as artistic director of the UK-based theater company Forced Entertainment, has recently emerged as a dominant force in the world of installations. Drawing on his background in theater, he explores the role of LED and neon sculptures as performance, pushing the boundaries of language, and finding new approaches to story and character. His work has been commissioned for such high-profile events as the Glatonbury Festival, in which his large scale installation will be shown throughout Europe during 2011 and 2012. He is also the recipient of the Legacy: Thinker in Residence Award from Tate Research and Live Art Development Agency (LADA).
American mixed media artist Gregory Scott combines video, painting, and photography into a single piece to create layers of illusion and a work of art within a work of art. Like an updated version of 19th century trompe l’oeil painting, Scott is a master of modern representational technology. By referencing an existing work of art, Scott explores issues of identity and how we regard art, stating “I’m commenting on how we choose our icons.” Scott is in such prestigious collections as the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago; Fundación Privada Sorigué, Lleida, Spain; and Harris Bank, Chicago, IL.
Contemporary Viennese artist Timotheus Tomicek forces us to examine our expectations for the familiar. Using portrait photographs as the center of his
installations he composes a series of minutely varying photographs projected in sequence to create subtle, uncanny, and haunting movements. His installs
landscapes, cityscapes, and still-lifes on traditional photo paper around this to create a haphazard environment, emphasizing the difference between their
movement and stillness. While sizes and formats vary and the arrangement on the wall seems random, conceptually, the juxtaposition between subtle action and lack thereof plays with our perceptions and expectations for the familiar. Tomicek has studied extensively internationally and been exhibited throughout Europe, most recently with a solo show at C/O Editions in Berlin; he was also recently awarded the 15th Welde Art Prize in Photography.
For visuals or more information please contact Karen Gilbert at 212-629-0707
