JESSICA MURRAY PROJECTS
210 NORTH 6th STREET (between Driggs Avenue and Roebling Street)
BROOKLYN, NY 11211
718.384.9606
www.jessicamurrayprojects.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Jessica Murray Projects is pleased to announce GROTTO 2. This summer group exhibition will open Friday, June 25 with a reception from 7-10 PM. Gallery hours are Wednesday through Sunday, 12 - 6 PM (closed July 4th). GROTTO 2 will run through August 1, 2004.

GROTTO 2 will include works by over sixty artists installed salon style, floor to ceiling. Inspired by the 18th century concept of the Rococo grotto, an artificial cave symbolic of both peaceful contemplation and turbulent inspiration, we aim to transform the gallery into a shrine filled with paintings, drawings, photography, sculpture, and video. This tight arrangement of artworks will convert the space into a sanctuary for reflection and pleasure. Works by the following artists will be included: Marty Ackley, Wayne Adams, Amanda Alic, Ellen Altfest, Reed Anderson, Andy Barrett, John Bauer, Ben Beaudoin, Jesse Bercowetz, Patrick Berran, Ralph Bourque, Skyler Brickley, Matt Bua, Beau Chamberlain, Ethan Crenson, William Cruickshank, Susan Daboll, Alec Dartley, Carrie Dashow, Daniel Davidson, Folkert de Jong, Alejandro Diaz, Jessica Dickinson, Brady Dollarhide, Chris Doyle, Peter Eide, David Ellis, Bill Feeney, Dana Frankfort, Chie Fueki, J.J. Garfinkel, Jackie Gendel, Chris Gentile, Stacy Greene, Adam Helms, Oliver Herring, Martine Kaczynski, Tricia Keightley, Rosy Keyser, Todd Knopke, William Kofmehl III, Dan Kopp, Peter Krashes, Michael Kusmierczyk, Bob MacDonald, Billy Maker, Rachel Mason, David McMurray, Diane Meyer, Franco Mondini-Ruiz, Jason Paradis, Stephanie Patton, Sheila Pepe, Nicole Pillorge, Holli Schorno, Vicki Sher, Koji Shimizu, Karina Aguilera Skvirsky, Gwen Smith, Vincent Szarek, Mark Dean Veca, Matthew Weddington, Josh Weinstein, and Judi Werthein. GROTTO 2 is co-curated by Jessica Lin Cox and Jessica Murray.

In Dutch artist Folkert de Jong’s The Year of the Monkey, 2004, a hooded, foam primate perching on a pile of rocks and skulls offers a tray of fast food—including a super-sized burger, fries and shake. Depicting the duality between fortune and desire, his work explores the materialization of our darker side.

With the suggestion of a cinematic past and future, Brady Dollarhide uses his signature technique of the silhouetted landscape to direct the viewer out from his own grotto towards a mysterious blood-red vista in Enchantment Enhancement.

Further incorporating watercolor with video, Chris Doyle creates the animation, Freezeframe, a view from his studio window of an austere industrial park. The artist activates this desolate yet magnetic environment with a crescendo of lights and figures.

Japanese artist Chie Fueki's unique personal history of growing up in Brazil translates into two small paintings: Turtle and Butterfly. Using the traditional Japanese ground of mulberry paper, Fueki layers paint, ink, graphite and glitter to create a cultural balancing act that Catherine Murphy describes as “worlds like timeless revelations into the past and into the future.”

In a new wax and oil abstraction by Jackie Gendel, Untitled, the artist choreographs a field of multi-colored dots in green, yellow and red. Black lines navigate between the pulsing rows mapping out a transition from entropy to order.

For the video piece, Model Anthem, 2004, Rachel Mason worked with a computer scientist at Yale University to create a program that generated a “model” anthem based on the statistical recurrence and placement of words from 193 national anthems. Performed at various venues by groups such as the Yale University Concert Band and the University of Missouri, Kansas City Accordian Orchestra, the resulting lyrics offer a surprising analysis of nationalism.

Central to the GROTTO 2 installation is David McMurray’s leviathan expressionist sculpture, Funny Ha-Ha (Funny Strange), 2004. Calling to mind the colossal mountainside Buddhas in East and Central Asia, the head rises from the ground, its marbleized surface suggesting weary tears as it suffers under the control of a smaller, menacing tumor-like bust.

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

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