Jenny Honnert Abell: Pretty, Peculiar Featuring work by our newest artist, Holly Roberts October 2015
JENNY HONNERT ABELL “While it is my foremost intention to construct work that is immediately pleasing, an element is always present identifying the underlying truth of unfairness and inequality in life that touches us all.” -Jenny Honnert Abell. If the role of the artist is to bring beauty into the world, to reflect the state of our society, and also to help us see more deeply into the workings of our souls, hearts, and minds; then Jenny Honnert Abell succeeds brilliantly. She taps into the sublime beauty of her own inner world, and brings this imagery up from the ether for all of us to relate to. Chances are, by facing these images, we can relate to her work with parts of our own inner realities. Jenny summons the subconscious with her combination of worlds, and brings psychologically complex and beautiful imagery to life in her works. She transforms false eyelashes into haloes, leather glove fingers into tree tendrils, and dryer lint into luxurious fur to create otherworldly fantasies. Jenny also celebrates the beauty of the bizarre. She loves anything new and unusual, typical of those who are highly creative. Her works are beautiful, and they are also delightfully unique. Her work will cause one to think past any surface level aesthetic, as all of her pieces contain a fragment of something strangely wonderful. Jenny’s collage work began in 1995 when she could no longer fight off the oppressive urge she felt to make pictures out of the harvest of years of scavenging. A hunger to combine these images and textures lying all over her studio initially drove her imagination to create unintentional plant-like forms. As these “flowers” emerged, her own language of formality developed, and exploring her obsession for meticulous detail was being satisfied. The relentless seduction that materials have had on her, have found a worthy purpose. Jenny’s appreciation of Ellsworth Kelly’s way of seeing things contributed to the way she transforms visual observations into her work. There is architecture and construction. Jenny’s father was an architect and his drafts on tracing paper, as well as later watercolor fragments, have shown up in several of her pieces. There is homage to fine craft. Hand-formed clay elements, stitching, and quilting are a constant in her work. In 2012, Jenny was awarded a commission by the Art in Embassies Program, to produce 10 works for the new US Embassy building in Dakar, Senegal, West Africa. The installation in the Embassy was completed in 2013. Jenny also received a commission in 2013 to create 6 pieces on old book covers, which related to winery subject matter, and have been installed in the permanent art collection of Craig and Kathryn Hall at Hall Winery in St. Helena, CA.
Jenny Honnert Abell, “Nothing Else Matters”, mixed media and oil on panel, 55 x 36”, 2015. $10,000
Jenny Honnert Abell, “Nothing Else Matters�: Star Detail
Jenny Honnert Abell, “For Myself”, mixed media and oil on panel, 70 x 48”, 2015. $12,000
Jenny Honnert Abell, “For Myself�: Branch Detail
Jenny Honnert Abell, “I Can’t Help Myself”, mixed media and oil on panel, 44.5 x 29.5”, 2015. $7,900
Jenny Honnert Abell, “Beware of the Snakeman”, mixed media and oil on panel, 75 x 70”, 2015. $17,000
Jenny Honnert Abell, “Beware of the Snakeman�: Detail
Jenny Honnert Abell, “Earn Your Keep”, mixed media and oil on panel, 70 x 48”, 2015. $12,000
Jenny Honnert Abell, “Earn Your Keep”: Pod Detail
Jenny Honnert Abell, “The Eleanor Tree”, mixed media on panel, 46 x 23”, 2015. $4,500
Jenny Honnert Abell, “The Eleanor Tree”: Detail
Jenny Honnert Abell, “Book Cover No. 175”, mixed media on old book cover, 8 5/8 x 6 7/8”, 2015. $1,200
Jenny Honnert Abell, “Book Cover No. 179”, mixed media on old book cover, 6 3/8 x 4 1/8”, 2015. $950
Jenny Honnert Abell, “Book Cover No. 178”, mixed media on old book cover, 6 3/8 x 4 1/8”, 2015. $950
Jenny Honnert Abell, “Book Cover No. 177”, mixed media on old book cover, 6 3/8 x 4 1/8”, 2015. $1,200
Jenny Honnert Abell, “Book Cover No. 174”, mixed media on old book cover, 9 3/4 x 6 1/4”, 2015. $950
Jenny Honnert Abell, “Book Cover No. 181”, mixed media on old book cover, 6 3/8 x 4 1/8”, 2015. $950
Jenny Honnert Abell, “Book Cover No. 182”, mixed media on old book cover, 3 3/4 x 3 1/4”, 2015. $650
Jenny Honnert Abell, “Book Cover No. 180”, mixed media on old book cover, 6 3/8 x 4 1/8”, 2015. $950
Jenny Honnert Abell, “Book Cover No. 177”, mixed media on old book cover, 10 1/4 x 6 5/8”, 2015. $1200
HOLLY ROBERTS Holly Roberts, born in Santa Fe, New Mexico, earned an M.F.A. from Arizona State University, Tempe, in 1981. Her pieces are nationally and internationally exhibited and have been published in three monographs. She twice received National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships. She currently lives and works in Corrales, New Mexico with her husband, Robert Wilson. Roberts works intuitively, painting an abstract painting on a panel before applying her signature photo fragments. She uses muted colors of paint and black-and-white photographs to create images that are filled with humor, irony and mythology. Her metamorphic beings illustrate archetypal emotional or dream states, although her subject matter has expanded from the internal to a wider worldview, touching on religion, technology and the environment. Robert’s art is bold, a bit brash, and almost always irreverent.
PUBLIC AND CORPORATE COLLECTIONS: Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, Florida Norton Museum, West Palm Beach, Florida Richard M. Ross Art Museum, Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, Ohio Special Collections, Green Library, Stanford University Art Institute of Chicago Museum of Photographic Art, San Diego, CA University of Arizona, Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ Phoenix Museum of Art Museum of Art, University of Iowa University Art Museum, University of New Mexico Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts, University of California, Los Angeles Trisolini Collection, College of Fine Arts, Ohio University Tulsa City-County Library Collection Prudential Insurance University of Houston, Print Study Collection Bayly Museum of Art, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA University of California at Santa Cruz, Special Collections, Santa Cruz, CA Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL Fidelity Investments Corporate Art Collections, Boston , MA
Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, AZ Dayton Hudson Corporation, Minneapolis, MN San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX University of Kentucky Art Museum, Lexington, KY Phoenix Arts Commission Albuquerque Museum of Art Albuquerque International Airport Monterey Peninsula Museum of Art, Monterey, CA Hallmark Collection of Art, Kansas City, MO California Museum of Photography, University of California, Riverside, CA Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA Citicorp Bank, Albuquerque, NM Valley National Bank, Phoenix, AZ University of Wyoming Art Museum, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY University of West Florida Art Museum, Pensacola, FL Columbia Collage, Chicago, IL
Holly Roberts, “Two Birds”, mixed media on panel, 7 x 10”, 2009. $1,800
Holly Roberts, “Couple Dancing”, mixed media on panel, 8 x 11”, 2015. $1,800
Holly Roberts, “Elephant Preaching”, mixed media on panel, 16 x 24”, 2013. $2,800
Holly Roberts, “Woman with Crow”, mixed media on panel, 24 x 24”, 2012. $3,200
Holly Roberts, “Girl with Yellow Braids”, mixed media on panel, 5.5 x 6”, 2009. $1,500
Holly Roberts, “Red Couple”, mixed media on panel, 8 x 7.75”, 2008. $1,800
Holly Roberts, “Barefoot Rider (Girl)”, mixed media on panel, 49 x 50”, 2013. $8,500
Holly Roberts, “Big Head Listening”, mixed media on panel, 48 x 26”, 2014. $7,500
Want to learn more? Website www.turnercarroll.com Email info@turnercarroll.com Facebook Turner Carroll Gallery Twitter @Turner_Carroll Instagram @turnercarrollgallery Phone 505-986-9800 Please come visit the gallery any of day of the week, between 10am and 6pm! 725 Canyon Road Santa Fe, NM 87501