Lisa Boyle Gallery is pleased to present the gallery's second solo exhibition of work by artist Amy Jean Porter. The fourteen works on paper are from the artist's most recent series "Freaked out Monkeys in the Trees" in which she exhibits an ambition for drawing that surpasses all her previous efforts. In this fourth distinct body of work, Porter continues in her dense, quirky style, but brings a slightly more psychological effect to bear. In her previous works, massive endeavors each comprised of hundreds of finished drawings in ink and gouache, Porter set to the task of developing an orderly yet humorous system
of new associations based on animal taxonomy. Beginning with the series "Birds of North America Misquote Hip-Hop and Sometimes Pause for Reflection" in 2002, she's worked through each of 5 subsequent series with dogged precision and dedication. Like the work in a many of her previous works, Porter pairs the delicate drawings with quotes, culled from various pop culture sources. In the case of "North American Mammals Speak the Truth and Often Flatter You Unnecessarily", begun in 2003, she paired a wide-ranging selection of mammals with random quotes plucked mainly from the pages of Conde Naste periodicals.
In this newest, and largest in size series of works, Porter foregoes the smaller format she employed when dealing with hundreds of drawings, and focuses instead on fewer, but more complex finished pieces. Monkeys of accurate anatomy but wildly imagined coloring, hang from the branches of trees situated in yards, on seashores or against vague and empty backdrops. While some of them are paired with quotes from the most mundane passages of St. Pauls letters in the Bible, all of them share similar postures, caught in frozen displays of repose. Stand-ins for humans, for Porter they express the anxiety felt at the core of American life, and the escapist fantasies for simpler, less convenient times.
Porter currently lives and works in Conneticut and is a graduate of Yale University and Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. She has recently been in residence at Weir Farm in Conneticut and Millay Colony in New York. She will be in a group exhibition of work selected by Dave Eggars at Apex Art in New York as well as in an exhibition at G-Module in Paris.
Farewell, Lisa Boyle Gallery, this Saturday, 24 June, 2008
And helllloooooo, part time, flimsily strewn together day jobs with little or no relevance to lasting intellectual or financial equity.
It's true, the gallery is closing, and I want to be sure that before I slip into obscurity I have a chance to thank all the wonderful people who have helped me a long the way. (I would also like to take this time to imply a terrible, terrible pox onto those who have not. Consider the curse placed, beyotches.)
Just kidding. I've immensely enjoyed these last four years and have been really fortunate to work with a good number of talented artists and other people. Closing is of course an end to the gallery space, but brings renewed energy to all of the like projects that will be commencing, and I look forward to continuing relationships with all of the artists, collectors and galleries I've worked with. So truly and seriously, thank you so much for your support.
Please visit the gallery for our last opening THIS Saturday, Freaked Out Monkeys in the Trees; New Work by Amy Jean Porter" and celebrate our four years with a great exhibition by the artist we began the gallery showing, with and one last very very free beer on me. If you can't make it, do us one last favor and check out her show on-line at www.boylegallery.com
This Saturday, 6 - 9pm. If you have any questions or would like to take this opportunity to let me know what you've really always thought, e-mail the gallery at ljboyle@mac.com, or call 773.655.5475 before my voice message turns into an incredibly unclear greeting that leaves you completely confused about whether I will still be a private dealer or not!
