March 4, 2007

Patterns of Upheaval and Calm Reflect Natural and Social Events

Jackie Kazarian: exhale

March 14 – April 12, 2008

Chicago---Alfedena Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition of new paintings and video by acclaimed Chicago artist Jackie Kazarian, titled exhale, from March 14 – April 12, 2008. This is the artist’s first solo show at Alfedena Gallery.  A reception for the artist will be held on Friday, March 14, 5:00-8:00 p.m. The exhibition is free and open to the public.

Since the early 1990s, Jackie Kazarian has been producing a significant body of abstract painting that has drawn its richness from her education in science as well as her collaborations with dancers and composers to create stage designs that evoke the energy of the body. As she states: “I began making art to investigate some scientific truths and challenge the belief systems used to explain the world.” Her studio is a “vision laboratory” where Kazarian probes systems of depiction established by art history as well as the theological ramifications and perceptual metaphors that arise from the “uncertainty principle” of advanced physics. The tensile strength of Kazarian’s lean galvanic compositions resides in this empirical drive to comprehend the real condition of the universe.

Borrowing the compositional and conceptual armatures of traditional Japanese and Chinese landscape paintings, Kazarian constructs spaces in her paintings in which anti-gravity and simultaneity rule. Varying scales of brush strokes are juxtaposed with a variety of image making techniques (screen-printing, stamping, flocking, collage) to keep the viewer suspended between states of calamity and calm. The silk screened image of twisted plastic construction netting is a recurring motif that Kazarian deftly incorporates into her fields of brush strokes to create such tensions. This imagery, concealed in what appear to be works of pure texture and color, offers subliminal warnings to viewers to be aware of the precarious nature of their surroundings.

Kazarian’s skill in creating visual metaphors for the ebb and flow of life’s beguiling physical and emotional patterns is articulated in the video Overflow, 2007, with music by Richard Woodbury. Overflow was commissioned by The Seldoms, a Chicago-based dance company (ww.theseldoms.com). Kazarian created the video from a continuous 45-minute painting session editing out all frames containing her hand and then worked with the music and dynamics of the dance to edit the video. Her abstract painting echoes the emotional arcs and structures of both the dance and the music. Most of the edits are clean cuts so as to stay true to the innate physical properties of the painting. The video is a glimpse into Kazarian’s painting practice and reveals how she negotiates scale and narrative potentials when working in the studio.

Jackie Kazarian’s work has been exhibited in Chicago, New York, Miami, California, Armenia and Japan. She has taught painting and drawing at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and created public works for the U.S. Embassy and the City of Chicago. She received her MFA (1989) in painting and drawing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BS (1981) from Duke University. She lives and works in Chicago.

To view images of the exhibition visit the web site, www.alfedenagallery.com.

###