Jay Heikes
dal 14/10/2011 al 11/11/2011
Segnalato da
14/10/2011
Jay Heikes
Shane Campbell Gallery, Chicago
On occasion of his solo show "Subterranean Isle" the artist presents a group of new cave paintings along with a single floor sculpture.
Shane Campbell Gallery is pleased to announce the exhibition Subterranean Isle by Jay Heikes. This is Heikes’ second solo exhibition with the gallery in Chicago.
Heikes will present a group of new cave paintings along with a single floor sculpture.
The paintings function as sculptural representations of Paleolithic cave paintings while the floor sculpture furthers Heikes’ interest in mining and the retrieval of raw materials.
The cave paintings are located between the materiality of the everyday and the transformative and transcendental properties of painting evidenced by the irregular form of each painting which breaks from the conventional rectilinear frame of painting and the imprinting of the hand as primal sign.
Each painting’s ground is constructed from layers of found visual material including earlier video stills from Heikes’ work which creates a sediment of signs that is then painted through the transfer of pigmented animal hides. The marks transferred to the surface serve as signs coming into being that are charged with the possibility of making something happen as opposed to being used as a means of recording the past or the facture of each work.
In short, the cave paintings are metaphors for the myth of the hero’s journey, descending from the world into the unknown to return transformed.
The floor sculpture, on the other hand, is constructed from linen and four pieces of copper ore mined from the Upper Peninsula in Michigan.
Like the marks of the hand in the paintings, the copper ore is raw and subject to transformation.
The copper mine itself is subjected to instrumental reason which justifies any action to retrieve the material for consumption without concern for the implications of such actions.
Heikes is interested in the mines as a means for accessing such raw materials and in the culture that develops around them.
Heikes lives and works in Minneapolis, MN. His work has been exhibited at the ICA, Philadelphia, the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.
For Further information please contact Sam Lipp at sam@shanecampbellgallery.com
Opening reception: Saturday, October 15, 6-8 pm
Shane Campbell Gallery
673 North Milwaukee Avenue - Chicago
Hours: Wednesday - Saturday, 12-6 pm
free admission