JESSICA MURRAY PROJECTS
210 NORTH 6TH STREET (BETWEEN DRIGGS and ROEBLING AVENUES)
BROOKLYN, NY 11211
718.384.9606
info@jessicamurrayprojects.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Jessica Murray Projects is pleased to announce The Prince Project: Dust by Bonnie Collura and Royale by Mark Dean Veca. Both exhibitions will open Friday, January 3 with a reception from 6-9 PM and will run through February 9. Gallery hours are Friday - Sunday, 12-6 PM or by appointment.

MAIN GALLERY
Bonnie Collura embarks on a new series of exhibitions called The Prince Project. Collura's latest endeavor, comprised of sculptures, drawings and video, begins with the legend of the Golem. According to the story, the Golem is a magical creature from Jewish mythology made of clay. He is imbued with life through Cabbalistic magic or divine intervention to assist the Jewish people in a time of need. Using this story as a departure point, Collura sets out to create her own fantasy servant or prince. Culling from the characteristics of some of history's greatest men: St. Sebastian, C-3PO, Lincoln and Jesus, Collura aims to create her own prince by combining aspects of these historical figures.

For the first exhibition of the Prince Project, titled Dust, Collura has created three sculptures representing the Maharal and his assistants—the creators of the Golem or, in this case, her Prince. Combining Disney with Greek mythology, contemporary culture with history Collura calls her team The Misfits: Hope, Faith and Luck. Hope, composed of a series of balloon-shapes, stands life-size waiting for ascension. Faith evolves as a combination of Venus and Dumbo. Decorated by a flowing ruffled collar and clip on elephant ears, Collura's clown, poses in a abstracted shell shape spilling her intestines on to the ground. Luck, the last assistant, takes the form of a four-leaf clover that the artist ties around her head. Each leaf is imprinted with her own face accompanied by one of Collura's princely gentleman: St. Sabastian, C-3P0, Lincoln or Jesus. Dust also includes ten circular kaleidoscope drawings, each one relating to a word in the infamous ritual that conjures the Golem.

Bonnie Collura has been included in exhibitions at The Walker Art Center (Minneapolis); Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art (Connecticut); Musee d’Art Contemporain (France); Parrish Art Museum, Thread Waxing Space, Apex Art, John Weber Gallery, and Salon 75 (New York). She has been selected for solo-exhibitions at Cologne Sculpture Park, Koln and the Dallas Museum of Art. Her work has been reviewed widely in The New York Times, The Village Voice, ArtForum, Art in America, Flash Art, Bomb, Sculpture, Time Out, Paper, Tema Celeste, Art Das Kunstmagazin, and Kunstforum. In 1999, she was awarded the Emerging Artist Award from the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art.

DRAWING ROOM
Mark Dean Veca presents Royale. Combining 18th century textile design with imagery inspired by underground comics, movie posters, album covers, and psychedelia, Veca swirls these two worlds through a palate of burnt sienna, pink, yellow, and light blue. Reviving the eccentricity and political punch of the18th century, Veca connects this seminal era to the dissonance surrounding contemporary culture and politics today.

Mark Dean Veca has been included in exhibitions at the Drawing Center, White Columns, PS 1 Contemporary Art Center, the Bronx Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum of Art (New York); the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Untitled Space (Connecticut); and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (San Francisco). Veca has been selected for solo-exhibitions at SUNY-Buffalo, DiverseWorks Art Space, Houston, and G-Module, Paris. His work has been reviewed in the New York Times, Art in America, Flash Art, Time Out, and the New Yorker. He received the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Painting in 1998 and in 2002. Veca will contribute a site-specific painting installation at Bloomberg Space (London) in April '03.

For more information, please contact Jessica Murray at info@jessicamurrayprojects.com or 718.384.9606.

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