JENNIFER WOLF LANDSCAPE
WILLIAM TURNER GALLERY BERGAMOT STATION ARTS CENTER 2525 MICHIGAN AVE., E-1 SANTA MONICA, CA 90404 P 310-453-0909 F 310-453-0908 www.williamturnergallery.com
LANDSCAPE Santa Monica, CA – The William Turner Gallery is pleased to present Landscape, the second solo exhibition of new paintings by Jennifer Wolf. With this exhibition, Wolf unveils an exquisite series of fluid abstractions. The paintings are composed using ground mineral pigments, which Wolf has been collecting from geographic sites for over a decade. Utilizing the varied properties of the different minerals, the paintings employ intuitive gestures to produce nuanced layers and organic textures. Wolf’s Landscapes compel the historic definition to reach beyond notions of ‘depicted image’ to include abstraction as a ‘scape’ and ‘land’ as a ‘medium’. Jennifer Wolf grew up in Southern California hiking the Santa Ynez and Santa Monica Mountains. This intimate connection with the landscape led Wolf to explore using the earthen colors she saw around her and to learn the early painting techniques of transforming collected minerals into useable pigments. This led to a progressive innovation past simply reviving old world techniques, as she began to combine these organic minerals with state of the art acrylic mediums. Each color is discovered through extensive exploration of the landscape and collected over many years, their processing and use subsequently recalling the artist’s personal experiences of disparate geographies. Thus the paintings become evidence of this history, each a sort of map recording not only place, but time. The mortar and pestle she employs to grind the rock transforms the laborious process into a meditation, acting as a portal to the artist’s memories as it exposes the pure color. Each strike of the pestle upon the mineral, whether it was collected from France, Peru, Santa Barbara or Santa Monica is a reminder of a specific experience in the natural environment. Thus Wolf’s new paintings explore the emotional connection that comes with discovering the land. Sometimes the experiences are sublime as they recall both the beauty of the land and fear of the unknown. Stumbling upon a fresh kill at the mouth of a river or losing the trail at the top of a mountain, as the sun is about to set. The fear of being alone in nature, vulnerable to it’s callousness has filled the artist with an arsenal of emotions to draw from as she approaches her painting practice each day. The result is a new body of work that exhibits both mystery and beauty, inviting the viewer to explore as much the painted evidence of the outer landscape as the inner landscape of the artist herself. Jennifer Wolf is from Ventura, Ca. She graduated from UCLA with a BA in Art History and an MFA from Otis College of Art and Design. Wolf lives and works in Venice, Ca.
Landscape #16, Hand made mineral pigment on panel, 48� x 90�
LANDSCAPE #15, Hand made mineral pigment on panel, 48” x 48”
LANDSCAPE #12, Hand made mineral pigment on panel, 42” x 84”
LANDSCAPE #5, Hand made mineral pigment on panel, 48” x 84”
LANDSCAPE #3, Hand made mineral pigment on panel, 42” x 84”
LANDSCAPE #1, Hand made mineral pigment on panel, 48” x 84”
LANDSCAPE #11, Hand made mineral pigment on panel, 48” x 48”
LANDSCAPE #3, Hand made mineral pigment on panel, 42” x 76”
LANDSCAPE #10, Hand made mineral pigment on panel, 48” x 72” LANDSCAPE #9, Hand made mineral pigment on panel, 48” x 48”
LANDSCAPE #7, Hand made mineral pigment on panel, 48” x 96”
LANDSCAPE #6, Hand made mineral pigment on panel, 48” x 72”
LANDSCAPE #8, Hand made mineral pigment on panel, 42” x 84”
LANDSCAPE #3, Hand made mineral pigment on panel, 42” x 84”
LANDSCAPE #3, Hand made mineral pigment on panel, 42” x 84”
LANDSCAPE #4, Hand made mineral pigment on panel, 30” x 48”
LANDSCAPE #2, Hand made mineral pigment on panel, 42” x 84”
LANDSCAPE STUDY #3, Hand made mineral pigment on panel, 14” x 22”
LANDSCAPE STUDY #2, Hand made mineral pigment on panel, 14” x 22”
JENNIFER WOLF CV Born 1972
Art Fairs
Works and lives in Venice, Ca.
2007 Art Fiera, Bologna, Italy. 2006 Preview Berlin, Emerging Art Fair, Berlin Germany
Education 2010 MFA Otis College of Art and Design 1997 B.A. Art History, U.C.L.A. 1997 University of Georgia Archaeological Field Excavation, Carthage, Tunisia. 1993 Churchill College of the Arts, Cambridge University, England. Select Solo Exhibitions 2013 Landscape, William Turner Gallery, Bergamot Station, Los Angeles 2012 Rincon Paintings, William Turner Gallery, Bergamot Station, Los Angeles 2010 A Place Without A Place, MFA Thesis Installation, Bolsky Gallery, Los Angeles 2007 Bloom, Elizabeth Paige Smith, Venice CA. 2005 Ground, William Turner Gallery, Bergamot Station, Los Angeles. Select Group Exhibitions 2012 Dopplegangster, Curated by Allen Tombello, Arena 1 Gallery, Santa Monica, Ca. 2012 Come in Les Femmes! A+D Museum, Los Angeles, Ca. 2012 Artists X Architects, Curated By Tibby Rothman. Joe’s, Venice 2011 Mylar Forest, Glendale Area Temporary Exhibitions 2010 The Bigger Picture, curated by Shana Nys Dambrot at Edgar Varela Projects, Downtown Los Angeles 2010 Women Of Uncertain Age, Samuel Freeman Gallery, Bergamot Station, Los Angeles 2010 All Together Now, Bolsky Gallery Los Angeles 2010 High Noon, Video Installation, Bolsky Gallery, Los Angeles 2008 GLAMFA, CSULB 2007 Family Garden, Elizabeth Paige Smith Atelier, Venice CA. 2006 Flow, curated by Peter Frank, Riverside Art Museum 2005 Flow, Curated by Peter Frank, Berman Turner Projects, Bergamot Station
Scholarships and Awards Grant from city of Glendale for installation Project Anderson Ranch Brooks Scholarship in Painting 2008-2010 Otis Institutional Grant 1997 UCLA Department of Classics Travel Grant for fieldwork in Classical Archaeology. Bibliography Peter Frank, “Going With The Flow” ART LTD, March 2008 Shana Nys-Dambrot, “Made in Los Angeles” Tema Celeste, January/February 2006. Peter Frank, “Ground at William Turner Gallery,” Art Week, December/January, 2004-2005 Shana Nys-Dambrot, “What if Vermeer Were an Abstract Expressionist,” Coagula Art Journal, Spring, 2003