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June 15, 2009
Veronica de Jesus
Do The Waive
Review by DeWitt Cheng
Shotgun Review
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One factor distinguishing modernism from postmodernism, one might argue, is the artist's relationship to mainstream society. The modernists who flourished from about 1880 to 1980--from Post-Impressionism through Conceptualism--opposed the general trend of materialist, bourgeois capitalism, and posited various personal mythologies as esthetic substitutes. The postmodernists--who began to predominate in the 1980s--borrowed from the Pop artists of the 1960s a more ambiguous, skeptical view of contemporary society and the artist's role in it, one that was partly satiric and partly accepting (think of Lichtenstein and Warhol). Moral ambiguity and esthetic hybridity continue to characterize most contemporary artwork, with young artists not so much denouncing the postmodern media glut as perhaps coming to uneasy terms with its symbols (and symbolic-analyst workers at their keyboards).
Veronica De Jesus, an Oakland artist concerned with conservation, ecology, and "class systems and money distribution," incorporates these social issues into her slyly subversive works, but with a light touch.[1] 1950s sociologists and novelists such as Vance Packard and Philip Wylie may have censoriously labeled Americans as status-seeking conformists. In De Jesus's overtly humorous drawings, they become masses of overlapping outlined figures engaged in obsessive or irrational behaviors: Léger's heavy, noble, and simplified communitarian workers reconfigured by graffiti artist Keith Haring into consumer bots. Her drawings are part diaristic notes to self and part semi-covert social exhortations, a tonal mixture sometimes seen in folk or outsider art.
The artist's social activism cohabits with delight in the silly stuff of pop culture. As Patricia Maloney noted, of de Jesus's 2007 exhibition, "transience seems to pervade... as she fastens her attention on everything from sports figures to 1970s-era plastic Coca-Cola Cups."[2] The tripedal football player in Bread Winner seems equally derived from Dubuffet's outsider art tradition as from the cool satire of Richard Lindner. The stuttering, repeated oil-company logos in Shell and Exxon Loves Fools remind us of their omnipresence on our highways (especially when the dash light starts blinking ominously). In All Business, a nude figure stands amid other corporate insignia: Fortune, HDTV and Business Week. In Basic Details, two heads in profile spew caption balloons at each other like bullets, each bearing the imperative "TALK." In Active Minds, six people stand together, their heads bearing huge circular holes or lobotomies.
The painter Squeak Carnwath describes De Jesus as a "handed-down artist," someone who recycles and reuses the stuff of the "handed-down world (to quote Wittgenstein)."[3] Such artists demonstrate that a world we only inherited is not one that we need to accept uncritically.
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Associated News
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News Archive
September 08, 2010
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Megan Whitmarsh @ Fecal Face 10 Year Anniversary Show |
September 02, 2010
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Art San Diego Contemporary Art Fair |
August 07, 2010
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Amy Casey featured in NY Times Opinionator Blog |
May 21, 2010
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San Francisco Fine Art Fair |
May 15, 2010
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Alison Pebworth
Interviewed on Culture Wire |
April 03, 2010
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Kenneth Baker ( sf chronicle ) reviews Jane Fine at Michael Rosenthal |
April 01, 2010
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Alison Pebworth Receives CCI "Investing in Artists" Grant |
January 15, 2010
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Jillian Mcdonald
Red Rum
Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center
January 15 - February 19, 2010 |
January 02, 2010
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Mutant Anxiety
San Francisco Chronicle
'Mutant Anxiety': Angst, woes in colorful veins
by Patrick Knowles |
December 03, 2009
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Megan Whitmarsh
Recursive Objects
The Wolfsonian
December 3rd - 6th, 2009 |
November 21, 2009
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Lisa Adams
Edenistic Divergence
Riverside Art Museum
November 21 - February 20, 2010
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November 12, 2009
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Megan Whitmarsh
In Stitches
Leila Taghinia-Milani Heller Gallery
November 12 - December 19, 2009
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November 07, 2009
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Jillian Mcdonald
Young Romance
Cambridge Gallery
November 7th, 2009 - January 3rd, 2010 |
November 06, 2009
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Amy Casey
Amy Casey and Jen Omaitz
Art Collinwood Gallery
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October 31, 2009
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Amy Casey
Amy Casey on the Cover of New American Paintings |
October 23, 2009
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Veronica de Jesus
Passport 2009
SF Arts Commission
October 23 + October 24, 2009 |
October 16, 2009
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Inga Dorosz
Team Painting: Stimulus Package
Atlantic Center for the Arts
Opening Reception October 16, 5 - 7pm
September 5 - November 7, 2009 |
October 14, 2009
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Jillian Mcdonald
Horror Makeup
University Art Museum, University of California, Santa Barbara
October 14, 2009 - January 31, 2010 |
October 07, 2009
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Amy Casey
Uncertain Times Review By Lauren Weinberg
Time Out Chicago |
October 05, 2009
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Jillian Mcdonald
Alone Together in the Dark - Social Studies Project 5
Arizona State University Art Museum
October 5, 2009 - February 20, 2010
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September 11, 2009
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Amy Casey
Uncertain Times
Zg Gallery, Chicago
September 11 - October 31, 2009 |
September 11, 2009
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Jane Fine
Glad All Over
Pierogi, New York, New York
September 11 - October 11, 2009 |
September 09, 2009
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Megan Whitmarsh
Yeti Crystal Rainbow
Krets Gallery, Malmo, Sweden
September 9 - October 11, 2009
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September 08, 2009
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Inga Dorosz
In Love With Night
Guggenheim Gallery, Chapman University
September 8 - October 9, 2009
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September 05, 2009
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Jillian Mcdonald
Shapeshifter curated by Michelle Handelman
Issue Project Room
September 5, 2009 8pm |
September 05, 2009
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Inga Dorosz
Team Painting: Stimulus Package
Atlantic Center for the Arts, New Smyrna Beach, FL
September 5 – November 7, 2009 |
August 28, 2009
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Tracey Snelling
Evolution of Print: Artists of Kala
Oakland Museum at the Oakland International Airport
August 28 - November 27, 2009
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August 19, 2009
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Jillian Mcdonald
Prozess curated by Jazz-minh Moore
Lyons Wier Gallery, New York
August 19, 2009 |
August 14, 2009
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Veronica de Jesus
Limited Edition Etchings
Now Available |
August 04, 2009
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Annual Biennial
In Your Face
KQED Review |
August 04, 2009
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Annual Biennial
Reception Photographs |
July 24, 2009
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Amy Casey
Interview by Vincent Wilkie
Diskursdisko
July 24, 2009 |
July 22, 2009
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Jane Hambleton
Impressions
Studio Visit
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July 18, 2009
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Mary Conrad
Impressions
Studio Visit
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July 17, 2009
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Megan Whitmarsh
Artists draw on the tradition of comics for exhibit
Review by Jennifer Dean
The Press-Enterprise
July 17, 2009 |
July 16, 2009
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Amy Casey
IdeaStream Video Interview |
July 09, 2009
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Megan Whitmarsh
Now at Michael Rosenthal |
July 08, 2009
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Jillian Mcdonald
We Walk With A Zombie
Review By Johnny Ray Huston, Cheryl Eddy, and Tony Papanikolas
San Francisco Bay Guardian
July 8, 2009 |
July 07, 2009
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Lisa Adams
Interview by Qi Peng
Examiner.com
July 7, 2009 |
June 28, 2009
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Elizabeth Mooney
Art of the State: Pennsylvania 2006 State Museum Purchase Award
The State Museum of Pennsylvania
June 28 - September 20, 2009 |
June 26, 2009
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Lisa Adams
Lisa Pressman Art Blog Interview |
June 24, 2009
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Jillian Mcdonald
Monstrosities Reception Photographs |
June 23, 2009
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Jillian Mcdonald
Artist Talk at Michael Rosenthal
Thursday, June 25 7pm |
June 19, 2009
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Amy Casey
Cleveland Arts Prize |
June 17, 2009
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Jillian Mcdonald
Monstrosities
Written by Johnny Ray Huston
San Francisco Bay Guardian Review
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June 15, 2009
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Amy Casey
The Shiny Squirrel Blog Interview |
June 03, 2009
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Veronica de Jesus
Do The Waive
Review By Johnny Ray Huston
San Francisco Bay Guardian Review |
May 28, 2009
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Megan Whitmarsh
Visions of the Frontier
Le Institut Valencia d'Art Modern Valencia, Spain
May 28 - November 15, 2009 |
April 16, 2009
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Jane Fine
Middlebury College Student Weekly
Review by Ramona Richards
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September 01, 2007
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Tracey Snelling
Behind Closed Doors
Interview by Chuck Mobley
SPOT Magazine |
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