Jenny Morgan: One and the Many
Dates:
Fri May 13, 2011 18:30 - Fri May 13, 2011
Location:
Brooklyn,
New York
United States of America
United States of America
Like
the Spice Gallery is proud to present One
and the Many,
an exhibition by Jenny Morgan whose new body of work formulates a
grounded state of hyper-sense while stripping each figure she paints
to their spiritual core. In her second solo show at Like the Spice,
Morgan locates a mystical familiarity in contemporary musicians and
artists. The technical grace of her figurative representation merges
with surreal imagination. Thoughtful manipulations bejewel her new
work and reveal a renewed sense of reserve. Each full-frontal
portrait blossoms out of scintillating colors and effects, revealing
layers of the individual and insight into a parallel dimension.
In
utilizing the figure, Morgan facilitates a correspondence
between souls. The figures resemble avatars in their presence and
disdain for artificial attachment to the contours, rather than the
spirit, of the body. Each human portal is transformed by supplemental
hues, soft glazes, blurred features, or minute definition into a
striking mutant. Oftentimes her self-portraits bear the brunt of her
early experiments, epitomizing the fluidity of extremes in the midst
of unmistakable comfort. Morgan disengages from her attachment to
hands and arms, allowing her varied technique to appear as
accessories to her personages rather than staples of her practice.
Despite
the traditional beauty of her oil paintings, Morgan actively
contradicts simplistically pretty hyperrealism with gritty
psychedelia. Old Masters and a concept of dimensional layering were
two significant contributions to the bevy of new work. Morgan has an
informed understanding of art history, color theory, and design
theory that is simultaneously addressed and deconstructed. These
references appear as figments, sheer filters for a dimension that
pulls from the multiplicity of the present.
Morgan's
passion for spiritual science translates into an interest in
provoking a multitude of physical dimensions. Confronting the raw
canvas and its function as a corporeal boundary are important
components in many of these paintings. Each additive technique or
reduction of the canvas allows Morgan to investigate perceptual
layers. Figures fluctuate in and out of the background by way of
pattern; stripes, zips, and even checkerboards distort the fore and
complicate the viewer's understand of compositional space.
Dimensional
incongruity in Morgan's work extracts sobriety, focus, and a sense of
yearning from her sitters. The peculiar elegance of her work
transcends photorealism in its connection to the body, to the moments
of humanity. Morgan fastens to her subject's breath, thought, and
life. She catapults each model into the light.
In
the past year Morgan has secured several portraiture commissions for
the likes of The New York Times Magazine and New York Magazine, she
was also featured on the cover of art ltd. magazine. Jenny Morgan was
born in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1982. She had her first solo show in
New York at Like the Spice Gallery in January of 2009, and has
exhibited nationwide in solo shows at Plus + Gallery and the Pirate
Gallery in Denver, Colorado. Ms. Morgan has participated in group
shows at Postmasters Gallery, New York, NY; 92Y Tribeca, New York,
NY; Millennia Gallery, Orlando, Florida; Columbia University, The
LeRoy Neiman Gallery; Smithsonian Institute's National Portrait
Gallery; The Magnificent Basement, London, England; Galleri SE Konst,
Falun Sweden; and multiple galleries in Colorado, Florida and New
York City. This year Plus + Gallery published in collaboration with
Like the Spice gallery "New Territory" a 240 page full
color book presenting 100 paintings by Jenny Morgan from the start of
her career in 2003 through her major exhibitions in 2009. Ms. Morgan
work is in public and private collections worldwide.
the Spice Gallery is proud to present One
and the Many,
an exhibition by Jenny Morgan whose new body of work formulates a
grounded state of hyper-sense while stripping each figure she paints
to their spiritual core. In her second solo show at Like the Spice,
Morgan locates a mystical familiarity in contemporary musicians and
artists. The technical grace of her figurative representation merges
with surreal imagination. Thoughtful manipulations bejewel her new
work and reveal a renewed sense of reserve. Each full-frontal
portrait blossoms out of scintillating colors and effects, revealing
layers of the individual and insight into a parallel dimension.
In
utilizing the figure, Morgan facilitates a correspondence
between souls. The figures resemble avatars in their presence and
disdain for artificial attachment to the contours, rather than the
spirit, of the body. Each human portal is transformed by supplemental
hues, soft glazes, blurred features, or minute definition into a
striking mutant. Oftentimes her self-portraits bear the brunt of her
early experiments, epitomizing the fluidity of extremes in the midst
of unmistakable comfort. Morgan disengages from her attachment to
hands and arms, allowing her varied technique to appear as
accessories to her personages rather than staples of her practice.
Despite
the traditional beauty of her oil paintings, Morgan actively
contradicts simplistically pretty hyperrealism with gritty
psychedelia. Old Masters and a concept of dimensional layering were
two significant contributions to the bevy of new work. Morgan has an
informed understanding of art history, color theory, and design
theory that is simultaneously addressed and deconstructed. These
references appear as figments, sheer filters for a dimension that
pulls from the multiplicity of the present.
Morgan's
passion for spiritual science translates into an interest in
provoking a multitude of physical dimensions. Confronting the raw
canvas and its function as a corporeal boundary are important
components in many of these paintings. Each additive technique or
reduction of the canvas allows Morgan to investigate perceptual
layers. Figures fluctuate in and out of the background by way of
pattern; stripes, zips, and even checkerboards distort the fore and
complicate the viewer's understand of compositional space.
Dimensional
incongruity in Morgan's work extracts sobriety, focus, and a sense of
yearning from her sitters. The peculiar elegance of her work
transcends photorealism in its connection to the body, to the moments
of humanity. Morgan fastens to her subject's breath, thought, and
life. She catapults each model into the light.
In
the past year Morgan has secured several portraiture commissions for
the likes of The New York Times Magazine and New York Magazine, she
was also featured on the cover of art ltd. magazine. Jenny Morgan was
born in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1982. She had her first solo show in
New York at Like the Spice Gallery in January of 2009, and has
exhibited nationwide in solo shows at Plus + Gallery and the Pirate
Gallery in Denver, Colorado. Ms. Morgan has participated in group
shows at Postmasters Gallery, New York, NY; 92Y Tribeca, New York,
NY; Millennia Gallery, Orlando, Florida; Columbia University, The
LeRoy Neiman Gallery; Smithsonian Institute's National Portrait
Gallery; The Magnificent Basement, London, England; Galleri SE Konst,
Falun Sweden; and multiple galleries in Colorado, Florida and New
York City. This year Plus + Gallery published in collaboration with
Like the Spice gallery "New Territory" a 240 page full
color book presenting 100 paintings by Jenny Morgan from the start of
her career in 2003 through her major exhibitions in 2009. Ms. Morgan
work is in public and private collections worldwide.
Cravings
Dates:
Fri Oct 22, 2010 00:00 - Mon Oct 18, 2010
Location:
United States of America
The only thing better than "hot media" is a hot dinner. So join us on Friday, October 22nd for Cravings, a dinner tied to our capital display of art, the colorful Chino Amobi - "PREGNANCY PACT".
Our dinners always offer you a night that's positively soaked in art, as well as food. As you dine you'll enjoy a discussion with Chino himself, who'll we think you'll find a fascinating speaker. From his approach to art, to his performance persona Diamond Black Hearted Boy, the Alabama-born Chino has shown his work from Virginia to Nigeria, so he's got plenty of things to talk about! You're going to love him as much as we do.
Served family style in the gallery itself, our dinner series is designed to let you enjoy a scrumptious meal while having a thoughtful conversation with strangers. Let yourself be inspired together by the beautiful work covering our walls. Just $45 per person covers dinner, drinks and entertainment. Dinner is served at 8:00pm.
Reservations Required!
Make your reservations before Wednesday, October 21st.
Use the Paypal link on our website (http://www.likethespice.com/pregpact/chinorsvp.html) and reserve your space, or contact us
at 718.388.5388 or via our email address info@likethespice.com
Reservations required!
Our dinners always offer you a night that's positively soaked in art, as well as food. As you dine you'll enjoy a discussion with Chino himself, who'll we think you'll find a fascinating speaker. From his approach to art, to his performance persona Diamond Black Hearted Boy, the Alabama-born Chino has shown his work from Virginia to Nigeria, so he's got plenty of things to talk about! You're going to love him as much as we do.
Served family style in the gallery itself, our dinner series is designed to let you enjoy a scrumptious meal while having a thoughtful conversation with strangers. Let yourself be inspired together by the beautiful work covering our walls. Just $45 per person covers dinner, drinks and entertainment. Dinner is served at 8:00pm.
Reservations Required!
Make your reservations before Wednesday, October 21st.
Use the Paypal link on our website (http://www.likethespice.com/pregpact/chinorsvp.html) and reserve your space, or contact us
at 718.388.5388 or via our email address info@likethespice.com
Reservations required!
Marked; A Show of Figure
Dates:
Fri Jun 11, 2010 00:00 - Sun May 23, 2010
Marked: A Show Of Figure
Like the Spice Gallery, Brooklyn
June 11th - August 8th, 2010
Opening Reception: Friday June 11th, 2010, 6:30pm - 10pm
Artist’s Dinner: Figure Ates - Friday June 25th, 2010
8:00pm - 10:00pm RSVP Required
It is little wonder that interpretations of the figure have been and continue to be so admired. After all, the figure is perhaps the most archaic and explored of all styles of art. Yet, even today, our cultural mastery of the figure can be redefined, reinvested, and reinvigorated by emerging artists. In the works exhibited at Like the Spice during Marked, six artists use the figure to reflect personal narratives of their own design.
Like the Spice Gallery, Brooklyn
June 11th - August 8th, 2010
Opening Reception: Friday June 11th, 2010, 6:30pm - 10pm
Artist’s Dinner: Figure Ates - Friday June 25th, 2010
8:00pm - 10:00pm RSVP Required
It is little wonder that interpretations of the figure have been and continue to be so admired. After all, the figure is perhaps the most archaic and explored of all styles of art. Yet, even today, our cultural mastery of the figure can be redefined, reinvested, and reinvigorated by emerging artists. In the works exhibited at Like the Spice during Marked, six artists use the figure to reflect personal narratives of their own design.
Bennett Morris: Climate Untamed
Dates:
Fri Jan 22, 2010 00:00 - Sun Jan 10, 2010
Bennett Morris: Climate Untamed
January 22th- February 14th, 2010
Opening Reception:
Friday January 22th, 2010 6:30-10pm
Artist’s Dinner:
February 5th, 2010 8pm - 10pm RSVP
Required
Like the Spice is pleased to announce Bennett Morris: Climate Untamed. This will
be the artist's first solo show in New York highlighting twelve photographs made
between 2006-2009 that diagram Morris's unique examination on beauty, fear, politics, and the sublime.
Steeped in the visual language of Romanticism, Morris's photographs examine the intimate relationship between beauty and fear while playing on the diluted modern politics of "Shock and awe." Re-examining classical thresholds like harmony and unity, Bennett follows in the path of painters like Salvatore Rosa who was drawn to the foreboding beauty of the Pyrenees when the term "awesome" was still weighted by a near-religious awe. The result of Bennett's exploration into this godlike fear and beauty creates a show that is more about climate than atmosphere, releasing singular moments to a vast array of emotions.
For Bennett, the photograph becomes a means to an end as he begins his process by
constructing large-scale dioramas within water tanks using fragments from fallen architectural structures, wax, model building parts, and other found materials. These post-human controlled environments are built for ruin; as he fills his tank with water what took many months to build disassembles in minutes. While paint pigments are added with perfect control, Bennett has only minutes to capture with his digital camera these transcendent yet ever ephemeral color reactions. He infuses these underwater landscapes with elements from the German Romantics and the Hudson River School, and then steeps them with Gothic Revival. What comes from this is sculpture forced into false scales and a strange, terror-stricken beauty born from a luminiferous aether made ‘simply’ from water and paint. Balancing between beauty and terror in this design, one is able to look through this cloud to see the deception and recognize beauty.
Born in Portland, Maine in 1978 Bennett Morris earned his BFA in Graphic Design from the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth in 2001 and his MFA in Interdisciplinary Studio Art from the Maine College of Art in 2007. He is a recipient of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture fellowship. Mr. Morris's work has been exhibited extensively in group shows across the US. Mr. Morris will also be featured in Skowhegan at 92YTribeca: An Alumni Exhibition running concurrently with this exhibition. Bennett is an Assistant Professor at the Maine College of Art.
January 22th- February 14th, 2010
Opening Reception:
Friday January 22th, 2010 6:30-10pm
Artist’s Dinner:
February 5th, 2010 8pm - 10pm RSVP
Required
Like the Spice is pleased to announce Bennett Morris: Climate Untamed. This will
be the artist's first solo show in New York highlighting twelve photographs made
between 2006-2009 that diagram Morris's unique examination on beauty, fear, politics, and the sublime.
Steeped in the visual language of Romanticism, Morris's photographs examine the intimate relationship between beauty and fear while playing on the diluted modern politics of "Shock and awe." Re-examining classical thresholds like harmony and unity, Bennett follows in the path of painters like Salvatore Rosa who was drawn to the foreboding beauty of the Pyrenees when the term "awesome" was still weighted by a near-religious awe. The result of Bennett's exploration into this godlike fear and beauty creates a show that is more about climate than atmosphere, releasing singular moments to a vast array of emotions.
For Bennett, the photograph becomes a means to an end as he begins his process by
constructing large-scale dioramas within water tanks using fragments from fallen architectural structures, wax, model building parts, and other found materials. These post-human controlled environments are built for ruin; as he fills his tank with water what took many months to build disassembles in minutes. While paint pigments are added with perfect control, Bennett has only minutes to capture with his digital camera these transcendent yet ever ephemeral color reactions. He infuses these underwater landscapes with elements from the German Romantics and the Hudson River School, and then steeps them with Gothic Revival. What comes from this is sculpture forced into false scales and a strange, terror-stricken beauty born from a luminiferous aether made ‘simply’ from water and paint. Balancing between beauty and terror in this design, one is able to look through this cloud to see the deception and recognize beauty.
Born in Portland, Maine in 1978 Bennett Morris earned his BFA in Graphic Design from the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth in 2001 and his MFA in Interdisciplinary Studio Art from the Maine College of Art in 2007. He is a recipient of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture fellowship. Mr. Morris's work has been exhibited extensively in group shows across the US. Mr. Morris will also be featured in Skowhegan at 92YTribeca: An Alumni Exhibition running concurrently with this exhibition. Bennett is an Assistant Professor at the Maine College of Art.
Exposure: Michelle Hinebrook & Nicki Stager
Dates:
Fri Dec 18, 2009 00:00 - Sun Dec 06, 2009
Exposure: Michelle Hinebrook & Nicki Stager
December 18th, 2009 - January 17th, 2010
Opening Reception: Friday December 18th, 2009, 6-10pm
Artist’s Dinner: January 15th, 2010, 8pm - RSVP Required
Like the Spice is pleased to present Exposure: Michelle Hinebrook & Nicki Stager, an exhibition spotlighting the separate works of these two artists. Both are wholly steeped in light, but each reaches a different, yet complementary, conclusion.
Michelle Hinebrook's newest pieces explore a very specific sort of geometry. Watching each line take the long journey across the canvas, one becomes aware of how each carries a share of the piece, as though the burden of the whole is being shifted into parts, just as light can be expressed in particles. This geometrical feeling is clear in all of Michelle's pieces, even as the lines take unexpected paths. Some pieces reflect like a cut diamond, while others catch the eye like a fish in a net. The repetition of bold colors and deviously simple shapes create an exciting, fractal-like rhythm that can hold the attention in the manner of a familiar heartbeat, or footsteps in the hall. A long time Like the Spice artist, this will be Michelle's first solo show.
Coming roughly a year after her explosive Like the Spice solo show Synesthesia, Nicki Stager continues her conceptual exploration of color and light. Nicki's all-new photograms have a feel of the glossy about them, and they wash over the viewer like a wave. In this show, her smaller cube-shaped styles continue, but all arrive newly created, and with the additional beauty that comes from experience. Against these works, Nicki showcases her enticing new larger pieces, cubes at new sizes, which have pushed Nicki to work against greater thresholds. All of these "Stager-grams" consist of simple colors and objects, assembled and drawn through the use of her unorthodox darkroom techniques. In this way, Nicki's colors become greater than they would normally appear, and it is easy to be fooled into thinking her pieces glow from within.
Like wave and particle, Nicki and Michelle make for ideal companions, starting from the same, simple cardinal points and ending up wildly different, offering results which together cross the spectrum of their light.
Michelle Hinebrook has exhibited at the Marlborough Gallery (New York, NY), Pratt Manhattan Gallery (New York, NY), McKenzie Fine Art (New York, NY), David Klein Gallery (Birmingham, MI), the Museum of New Art (Detroit, MI), Like the Spice Gallery and galleries and museums throughout the country. In addition to her studio practice, Michelle Hinebrook frequently lectures about her work and teaches studio courses at the College for Creative Studies, Pratt Institute, Cranbrook, Western Carolina University, and Nurture Art.
Born in 1978 Wellsboro, PA, Nicki Stager holds a BS and MEd in Art Education and a BFA in Graphic Design and Photography from Kutztown University of Pennsylvania. She has exhibited with Ricco/Maresca Gallery in New York and Gallery 908 in Reading, Pennsylvania. Her work has been featured in Harper’s and Art Review Magazine. Stager has been teaching photography since 2002 and was recently awarded a Fullbright Teacher Exchange.
December 18th, 2009 - January 17th, 2010
Opening Reception: Friday December 18th, 2009, 6-10pm
Artist’s Dinner: January 15th, 2010, 8pm - RSVP Required
Like the Spice is pleased to present Exposure: Michelle Hinebrook & Nicki Stager, an exhibition spotlighting the separate works of these two artists. Both are wholly steeped in light, but each reaches a different, yet complementary, conclusion.
Michelle Hinebrook's newest pieces explore a very specific sort of geometry. Watching each line take the long journey across the canvas, one becomes aware of how each carries a share of the piece, as though the burden of the whole is being shifted into parts, just as light can be expressed in particles. This geometrical feeling is clear in all of Michelle's pieces, even as the lines take unexpected paths. Some pieces reflect like a cut diamond, while others catch the eye like a fish in a net. The repetition of bold colors and deviously simple shapes create an exciting, fractal-like rhythm that can hold the attention in the manner of a familiar heartbeat, or footsteps in the hall. A long time Like the Spice artist, this will be Michelle's first solo show.
Coming roughly a year after her explosive Like the Spice solo show Synesthesia, Nicki Stager continues her conceptual exploration of color and light. Nicki's all-new photograms have a feel of the glossy about them, and they wash over the viewer like a wave. In this show, her smaller cube-shaped styles continue, but all arrive newly created, and with the additional beauty that comes from experience. Against these works, Nicki showcases her enticing new larger pieces, cubes at new sizes, which have pushed Nicki to work against greater thresholds. All of these "Stager-grams" consist of simple colors and objects, assembled and drawn through the use of her unorthodox darkroom techniques. In this way, Nicki's colors become greater than they would normally appear, and it is easy to be fooled into thinking her pieces glow from within.
Like wave and particle, Nicki and Michelle make for ideal companions, starting from the same, simple cardinal points and ending up wildly different, offering results which together cross the spectrum of their light.
Michelle Hinebrook has exhibited at the Marlborough Gallery (New York, NY), Pratt Manhattan Gallery (New York, NY), McKenzie Fine Art (New York, NY), David Klein Gallery (Birmingham, MI), the Museum of New Art (Detroit, MI), Like the Spice Gallery and galleries and museums throughout the country. In addition to her studio practice, Michelle Hinebrook frequently lectures about her work and teaches studio courses at the College for Creative Studies, Pratt Institute, Cranbrook, Western Carolina University, and Nurture Art.
Born in 1978 Wellsboro, PA, Nicki Stager holds a BS and MEd in Art Education and a BFA in Graphic Design and Photography from Kutztown University of Pennsylvania. She has exhibited with Ricco/Maresca Gallery in New York and Gallery 908 in Reading, Pennsylvania. Her work has been featured in Harper’s and Art Review Magazine. Stager has been teaching photography since 2002 and was recently awarded a Fullbright Teacher Exchange.