JENNIFER BALKAN: PAN-DEMON-IUM
ON VIEW JULY 8 - August 6, 2021
AnArte Gallery is thrilled to present Jennifer Balkan’s "Pan-demon-ium” solo exhibition featuring her most recent body of work. AnArte Gallery will host an opening reception on Thursday, July 8, 2021, from 5:30 - 7:30 pm. Please join us for a champagne and wine reception with music by Louis Davila. Jennifer Balkan will give an Art Talk at 6:15 pm.
Jennifer began this body of work fueled by and in the throes of a world stricken by a biological pandemic and a social one. She has responded to this by painting and drawing. She juxtaposes painterly voluminous figures and faces of real humanity with bits of narrative, flat two-dimensional and illustrative lines of comic, graphic contours that provide context. Some figures exist within the environs of nature and natural events some cataclysmic, some threatening, and some predatory, serving as a metaphor. Jennifer’s pen drawings include some of these figures more quietly rendered with marks that have been likened to birds’ nests. Jennifer adorns her subjects with halos, elevating and illuminating them. Though this feature has historically been reserved for the holy, she argues that so many become “enlightened” through life’s experiences. Through these seemingly disparate methods of visual description plus a variance of brushwork, line, and a keen sense of color choice, Jennifer hopes to present an emotionally layered dialogue within each painting and drawing.
Then all the noise stopped, 2021, Oil on aluminum panel, 30 x 30 in.
On the Verge of 'Poof', 2021, Oil on aluminum panel, 40 x 40 in.
By reason of my motion, I cannot stop, 2021, Oil on aluminum panel, 40 x 40 in.
And it got so hot, I hid within the plumes, 2021, Oil on aluminum panel with acrylic paint markers, 40 x 40 in.
Surface Tension, 2021, Oil on aluminum panel, 40 x 40 in.
Combustion, 2021, Oil on aluminum panel with acrylic paint, 40 x 40 in.
And it all went 'Boom,' 2021, Oil on aluminum panel, 30 x 30 in.
When my energy is transformed, 2021, Oil on aluminum panel, 30 x 30 in.
Because I will always make waves, 2021, Oil on aluminum panel, 30 x 30 in.
Measured in megajoules, 2021, Oil on aluminum panel, 30 x 30 in.
Then all the noise stopped, 2021, Oil on aluminum panel, 30 x 30 in.
Darkness Begets Black Comedy, 2021, oil on aluminum panel, 30 x 30 in.
If the Sea Swallows Me, 2021, Ballpoint pen and marker on paper , 24 x 19 in.
Out of the Blast of a Supernova, Life is Born, 2021, Ballpoint pen and marker on paper , 24 x 19 in.
High Voltage, 2021, Ballpoint pen and marker on paper , 24 x 19 in.
Vortex, 2021, Ballpoint pen and marker on paper , 24 x 19 in.
With a pulse that traveled faster than the speed of sound, 2021, Ballpoint pen and marker on paper , 24 x 19 in.
What came after 'Poof,' 2021, Ballpoint pen and marker on paper , 24 x 19 in.