6 spring street
new york city 10012
tel: 212.219.0166
info@jenbekman.com

anne hall

statement

The majority of this work was done within 50 miles of a New Hampshire cabin that I have visited all of my life. When I was little I used to imagine that in the middle of the night my family would all secretly get up and ditch me in this house, leaving me for dead.

I look for landscapes where dead reality and vibrant fantasy coexist. In my work reality reflects human residue and intention. In many cases this is self-consciously shrouded structures or obedient landscaping. Fantasy takes the form of natural phenomena such as light or gravity that walks in like a chaotic blessing.

In keeping with the epic and humiliatingly commodified subject of the human condition, my titles are appropriated from self-help books and song lyrics. I work in a variety of mediums but mainly photography and painting. Photography forces me to relate to my surroundings and to find paradise here. Painting enables me to make a mess and wander into alternate realities.

Paradise celebrates the human desires to arrange nature and welcome fantasy.

bio

Born in Greenwich, Connecticut, 1974
Education: Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio, BA, 1997
Lives in New York City

solo shows
2003 Paradise, Jen Bekman Gallery, NYC, NY

selected group shows
2003 Slide Slam, Real Art Ways, Hartford, Connecticut
2003 Made In New York, Jen Bekman Gallery, NYC, NY
2003 8.5 x 11, Jen Bekman Gallery, NYC, NY
2000 Listening to the Prairie, Smithsonian Institution,
       Washington, D.C.
2000 Virgin Atlantic Artists, Dulles Airport, Dulles, Virginia