The Bunny In The Moon: Solo Exhibition of New Work by Tara McPherson
Saturday, October 23 at 7:00pm – November 20 at 1:30am
Jonathan LeVine Gallery
529 West 20th Street, 9th Floor
Tara’s second solo show at Jonathan LeVine explores the myths and legends from different countries she has traveled to over the past few years.
Opening reception: Saturday, October 23, 7 to 9 pm
Free and open to the public!
More Info: http://www.jonathanlevinegallery.com/
This past weekend, the New York Times did a fantastic write-up of the Jonathan Levine Gallery, who is celebrating their fifth anniversary. The Gallery has always been a champion of illustration and shows the work of multiple Parsons Illustration alums and faculty members. Here’s a snippet from the write-up:
For the current fifth-anniversary exhibition at his New York gallery Jonathan LeVine has filled it with works by 35 artists, most of whom he represents. The space is in Chelsea, but there’s no cerebral conceptualism, cool abstraction or painterly gesture on view.
Instead this work, variously labeled Lowbrow Art, Pop Surrealism and perhaps most accurately Pop Pluralism, is the skateboarding, graffiti-tagging, sometimes bratty and rebellious younger sibling of the art shown in most of the neighborhood’s locations. Still, the art in the Jonathan LeVine Gallery seems at home in Chelsea in a way it did not five years ago. After years on the fringes of the art world, “we’ve come to a turning point,” Mr. LeVine said recently. “The mainstream is embracing this work.”
Read the rest of the article here and also make sure to check out the great multi-media section featuring lots of images and commentary from Jonathan himself. The Five Year Anniversary Group Exhibition is on view at Jonathan Levine through March 27th and includes works by Parsons Illustration alums Isabel Samaras, AJ Fosik, Andy Kehoe, and Parsons Illustration faculty Tara McPherson.
Congrats to Jonathan, his staff, and all the artists he represents!
Jonathan LeVine Gallery
529 West 20th Street, 9th floor
New York, NY 10011
212-243-3822
HOURS: Tuesday through Saturday, 11am to 6pm
[image by Andy Kehoe, “Passing Through the Forest Deep”]
True Self Group Exhibition participating artists include:
Adam Wallacavage, Alex Prager, Amor Munoz, Boris Hoppek, Christian Clayton, Dalek, David Sandlin, Deedee Cheriel, Eric White, Esther Pearl Watson, Fons Schiedon, Frieda Gossett, Friends With You, Gary Taxali, Gary Baseman, Gerard Debois, James Jean, Karen Hsiaio, Korin Faught, Lauren Bergman, Leah Hayes (Parsons Illustration Alum!), Lola, Luke Chueh, Marion Peck, Mark Ryden, Mark Todd, Martha Rich, Mike Shinoda, Natalia Fabia, Orly Cogan, Rob Clayton, Robin Van Valkenburgh, Ron English, Ryan Heshka, Ryan Jacob Smith, Shag, Shannon Freshwater, The London Police, Tim Biskup, Travis Lampe and more!
The Panorama Project 3: 134 artists, one continuous piece
curated by Jordin Isip (Parsons Illustration Faculty)
and Rodger Stevens (Parsons Illustration Faculty and Alum)
September 6th—October 4th, 2008
Opening Reception: Saturday, September 6th, 7pm—9pm
Jonathan Levine Gallery, NYC
The Panorama Project 3 is a group exhibition featuring commissioned works by over one hundred artists, which will be combined to create a single collective artwork and a site-specific installation. This show will be the latest in a series of large-scale group exhibitions curated by New York based artists Jordin Isip and Rodger Stevens. Since 2001, they have been bringing together an ever-expanding network of painters, sculptors, illustrators, designers, photographers, and video makers to create conceptually and visually unconventional group projects. Some of the original participants included: Doze Green, Chris Johanson, Misaki Kawai, Barry McGee, Georgie Stout, and Eric White.This exhibition is a variation on one of their earliest efforts. It creates a single, continuous work, comprised of one hundred and thirty-four individual pieces.
The participating artists each received a 7” x 5” wooden panel, on which to create their portion of the installation, with one requirement:each work had to include some manner of horizontal line or division, set at 1-3/4” from the bottom of the board. This common visual device allows each of the separate pieces, when installed together side by side, to cohere into one long contiguous image**a panorama, encircling the entire gallery space. With no knowledge of what would appear on either side of their panel, each artist had the freedom to interpret the line in their own unique way. The installation creates a grand and unpredictable visual synthesis, in a monumental iteration of the exquisite corpse concept. Bringing together artists from so many disparate fields, unlikely to ever appear in the same exhibition space at the same time, this show creates an opportunity for lively experimentation and unexpected results, inspiring innovation while working within a set of prescribed limitations.
The show features a whole plethora of Parsons faculty and alums including:
Yong Choe
Carl Dunn
Ingo Fast
Johanna Goodman
Chesiel John
Andy Kehoe
Hiro Kurata
Liz Lee
Chang Park (faculty)
Jeff Quinn (faculty)
Jessica Ward
Noel Claro
William Buzzell
AJ Fosik
Eddie del Rosario (faculty)
James Gallagher (faculty)
Cat Lauigan
Philip Fivel Nessen
Jordin Isip (faculty)
Rodger Stevens (faculty)
ABOUT THE CURATORS
Jordin Isip is from Queens, NY and has lived in Brooklyn since graduating with a BFA from Rhode Island School of Design. He makes artwork for both publication and gallery walls. His work has appeared in numerous publications including: The Atlantic Monthly, Juxtapoz, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, and Time. He has curated over a dozen group exhibitions including Mystery Meat at Future Prospects (Phillipines), Scab on My Brain at Space 1026 (Philadelphia), and A Piece Apart at Aidan Savoy (NYC).
Rodger Stevens was born in Brooklyn NY. He studied at the School of Visual Arts and Parsons School of Design, where he currently teaches. His sculptures, installations, and drawings have been exhibited in galleries and museums in New York and abroad and he has been commissioned by numerous institutions including: The Whitney Museum of Art, Tiffany&Co, The Rockwell Group, W Hotel, Sotheby’s, and MTV. His work has been featured in publications such as Art&Antiques, Harper’sBazaar, Elle Decor, and The New York Times.
The Panorama Project 3
September 6th—October 4th, 2008
Jonathan Levine Gallery
529 W. 20th Street, 9E
New York, NY 10011
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClvF3u_JGoU&hl=en]
Check out this great video–narrated by art critic Julia Morton–featuring Illustration Adjunct Faculty Tara McPherson and her exhibition “Lost Constellations” on view through March 22nd at Jonathan Levine Gallery.
You can also catch Tara (and her artwork) at Flatstock 16 in Austin, Texas this week. Flatstock brings poster artists from around the world for the bi-annual convention sponsored by the American Poster Institute, dedicated to the promotion of music poster art and design worldwide. Tara will be manning a table at the following times:
Thursday, March 13 (1:00PM – 6:00PM)
Friday, March 14 (11:00AM – 6:00PM)
Saturday, March 15 (11:00 – 6:00PM)
You’ve heard the sordid tales of deluxe poster prints sold to you (the fans) by the artists themselves, now come see for yourself. FLATSTOCK 16 is free for everyone so come one come all!
Parsons Illustration Adjunct Faculty Tara McPherson is currently showing new works at her first solo show for the Jonathan Levine Gallery, here in New York. Here’s the official press release:
For the artist’s first solo show at the gallery, Lost Constellations features a new series of oil paintings and resin-cast sculptures, incorporated into a site-specific installation. The sculptures are a new experience for the artist, who has never before worked in this medium, three-dimensionally in full-scale proportions.
The painted portraits in Lost Constellations depict adventurous super-heroines from an alternate universe, crossing dimensional planes of time and space. McPherson considers the idea of parallel existence through the use of multiple views or angles on a subject, inspired by the Einstein cross (a phenomenon caused by gravitational lensing) while her series of bodily transfigurations convey principles on the physical manifestation of thought. A reoccurring cast of female characters appear in various states of action-fighting battles and growing toward self-discovery. Using her signature bold and graphic style, Tara’s imagery explores love, loss and loneliness through variations on strength, vulnerability and female empowerment. Concepts of non-verbal communication and the evolution of spoken language are explored as well, along with an interpretation on the circle of life- represented through transitional properties of water particles: gas, liquid and solid.
One of the first women to gain recognition in a genre (and greater Art world) dominated by Male artists, Tara McPherson is a role model for younger female artists in the movement. A multi-faceted artist, she has successful careers in both Fine Art and Illustration. Her process remains the same in commissioned illustrations as in her personal work. Tara only does what she enjoys, never compromising her talent or individual sense of creative expression. Fine Art allows McPherson to develop a deeper, more intimate narrative for her subjects. Through layers of paint and symbolism, ideas that take pages of storyboard to convey in illustration projects can be condensed into a singular panel for one of her original pieces of artwork.
Congratulations, Tara!