Exhibitions
Opening reception: April 26 2013
Jenene Nagy / phenomena
April 26 - June 8, 2013
*View works from the exhibition.
*Review of exhibition on Burnaway.
Get This! Gallery is pleased to present the solo exhibition phenomena by Jenene Nagy. This is Jenene’s first time working with Get This! Gallery.
Jenene Nagy’s drawings reward those who look and keep looking. The works exploit the inherent properties of graphite and rely on the materiality of surface, challenging the limits of human observation. As the act of looking builds up, the viewer becomes both witness to and creator of the phenomena. And indeed, only upon closer inspection do the solid black, geometric drawings reveal a landscape of perceptually intriguing metallic impressions - residue of rigorous, hyper-actively contained mark making.
According to Nagy, the works physically locate the viewer where perception and light are integral in revealing and concealing the composition. Like silvery optical illusions, the drawings change perspective based on how the viewer shifts. The direction that the graphite has been applied, the pace at which Nagy’s marks move across the paper all require slight movements, each shift building a new way of seeing and only adding to the visual phenomena.
In previous works, Nagy borrowed compositions from painter Peter Halley to experiment with the optical phenomena he spoke of in his writings. In the exhibition phenomena, maps of Atlanta - before and after the 1996 Summer Olympics - lend the visual language to provide a launching off point for abstraction, subjectivity, and a visual examination of three-dimensional spaces.
Nagy lives and works in Aspen and Los Angeles. She received her BFA from the University of Arizona in 1998 and her MFA from the University of Oregon in 2004. Nagy’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally at venues including the Portland Art Museum, Weatherspoon Art Museum, Torrance Art Museum, Takt Kunstprojektraum in Berlin, Germany, and Dam Stuhltrager in NY, among others. Recent awards include an Individual Artist Fellowship from the Oregon Arts Commission, a three-month residency at Raid Projects in Los Angeles. In 2011 Nagy was named as a finalist for the Contemporary NW Art Awards. Along with a rigorous studio practice, Nagy is one half of the curatorial team TILT Export: an independent art initiative with no fixed location, working in partnership with a variety of venues. From 2011-12 she was the Curator-in-Residence for Disjecta Contemporary Art Center in Portland, Oregon. Currently, Nagy serves as the Artistic Director of Painting and Printmaking at Anderson Ranch Arts Center.