Opening Reception:
Thursday, November 8th, 6-9pm
On view: November 8 - December 20, 2018
WAITING ROOM
JENETTA de KONINK
PROJECT SPACE
LUCAS KELLY - Pictures of You
NEW YORK – 57W57Arts is pleased to present two solo exhibitions featuring works by Jenetta de Konink in the Waiting Room, and Lucas Kelly in the Project Space. A zine publication in collaboration with both artists will accompany their exhibitions. There will be an opening reception on Thursday, November 8, and the exhibitions will be on view to the public through December 20.
Jenetta de Konink ’s Waiting Room exhibition will feature a selection of small-scale artworks from the artist’s ‘FEAR’ and ‘Not now!’ series, completed this year. Thickly applied layers of oil paint combined with fine charcoal lines elegantly define her remarkable technique. De Konink’s wooden frames are self-made, covered with canvas, then prepped with bone glue and eventually glued onto the canvas using paper. She has been working with glued paper as a top layer for several years. Thanks to this smooth layer, the paint stays on top of the surface and is not absorbed by the canvas itself. De Konink relates her story through her paintbrush - a story that captures her insecurities and fears in such a way that renders the striking core of the painting universal. The drawings appear to be nonchalantly sketched onto the paint layer and create a repetitive visual image of a woman laying down. Because of the repetitive nature of the images, de Konink is able to approach each canvas in a completely organic way without jeopardizing the series' story line.
Jenetta de Konink was born in 1958 in Rijswijk, the Netherlands. She studied fashion design at the Academy of Art in the Dutch city of `s-Hertogenbosch and has worked for a major fashion retailer as a buyer/stylist in her home country. De Konink, who only started painting after the turn of the century, regularly exhibits her work in the Netherlands. She has had a solo exhibition at the KEG Foundation (Schijndel, NL) and has been an artist-in-residence in Lichtenvoorde. She has recently been nominated for This Art Fair in Amsterdam and her work is in private collections both in and outside the Netherlands. De Konink is also active in committees to promote art in her home country; she is a panelist for Artist of the Year as well as a member of several ballot committees. De Konink currently works from her art studio called 'De Vlieger' in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, NL.
In the gallery’s Project Space, Lucas Kelly will present “Pictures of You”, a series of works that explore the inefficiency of memory’s ability to maintain narrative. Developing formal sensory triggers that precipitate nostalgic responses, this body of work hopes to engage narrative participation from the viewer. These formally ambiguous objects, which act as surrogates for lost entities in the artist’s personal experience, become tactile markers for memories which have broken down over time. These scenes are averaged time over time and gaps are filled to create clarity. Continually accessing these memories breaks down our ability to accurately store their information. Kelly is interested in this type of systematic failure, a beautiful disaster of sentimentality. Keeping his objects formally ambiguous allows the viewer to engage on their own terms, and apply their own narrative. Kelly thinks about his work as nostalgically being similar to songs in the way that music becomes a placeholder for moments in our personal histories. Different points in the artist’s personal narrative generate specific images to which he can attribute a sonic reference. Kelly’s objects now occupy a physical space protecting them from the ephemerality of memory.
Lucas Kelly’s work has been exhibited in museums and galleries across the United States and throughout Europe. His work has been included in multiple group shows, most notably in the survey of abstract painting "The Painted World" at PS1 MoMA. Kelly holds a BFA from Maryland Institute College of Art, a MFA from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University, and is a full professor at Mercer County Community College. Kelly currently lives and works in Philadelphia, PA.
