COOL PAINTINGS AT A HOT 2011 Annual Summer Invitational

UNFAMILIAR IDOL

Unfamiliar Desire

Currently on view at the Jonathan LeVine Gallery the "2011 Annual Summer Invitational" which opened on August 10th and continues through August 27th features 11 diverse Emerging Artists. I am especially drawn to the three paintings by Jennifer Delilah, which are part of a larger Series of a narrative that takes place in a composite account of Colonialism.

The Series started with scenes set in the great Salons of Versailles, the meeting and ceremonial rooms of the aristocracy, creating a worldwide gaming field in which the last Dauphin of the French monarchy, Louis the 19th, plays games with his toy soldiers, oil wells, sometimes his nursemaid, and other visual clues, jokes, and symbols.

Unfamiliar Kingdoms 1

In this, the latest development in the Series, outside of the palace a bizarre economy is under way in which the beautiful, exotic birds are the slaves of the ugly storks.

It is as though the birds that populate this landscape have adopted human characteristics such as covetousness, lust, and materialism.

They follow their temporal wants despite countless unknowable diversions, helplessly treading ever upwards on a spriral staircase in pursuit of unattainable desires, despite the fact that they can in fact...FLY~

Jonathan LeVine Gallery, 529 West 20th Street, 9th Floor, Chelsea"2011 Annual Summer Invitational" through August 27th