Jenni Crain at 321 Gallery

Artist: Jenni Crain

Exhibition title: Scenes From A Pause

Venue: 321 Gallery, Brooklyn, New York, US

Date: May 26 – July 8, 2017

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and 321 Gallery

321 Gallery presents Scenes From A Pause, a solo exhibition by Jenni Crain. Drawing from architecture, Crain’s work negotiates the conditions of a given or perceived space, often referring to the environment of the exhibition itself, as well as to the emotional associations to moments and memories of elapsed experience. Crain’s allusions to time reflect upon and trace our intersecting and evolving relationships with place, perspective, and personal histories.

A pause, a momentary cessation of activation, becomes the site of presentation and observation in Crain’s works. This fleeting moment is memorialized by virtue of the physicality of its representations and the effectual environmental shifts of their presence. These expressions, here and now, offer one particular experience, yet the imprints of inevitable, circumstantial flux will beckon another collection of impressions and interpretations. Their stagnation in a constant state of evolution.

The exhibition is comprised of four works. Three of these are untitled, with their definitions to be determined over the course of their comprehensive contexts. Two of these, sculptural works, Untitled (1) and Untitled (2), occupy opposite lateral planes that meet—the wall and the floor; the ground from which we gaze. Their forms mirror the spatial qualities of their surroundings and supports. Untitled (3), a framed, found photograph, depicts an unknown relative of the artist. The subject sits in a sling chair in a perceivably enclosed, outdoor environment. The chair’s form, its mobile design and details, such as its awning, attribute to layered allusions of exterior versus interior spaces. The relationships between these simultaneously polar yet mutually definitive perceptions of place echo the various ways in which we are shaped by our surroundings. These capacities are made palpable in If and When. The object rests, shifting between an abstraction of a moment that has existed, and the potential of its impending application.

Jenni Crain (B. 1991, New York) is a Brooklyn-based artist and curator. Crain’s work was most recently included in Tapping, an exhibition organized amongst the six participating artists at KANSAS, New York, NY (2016). Solo exhibitions include Upon Reflection at Y Gallery, New York, NY (2015), and Bent To Its Own Image at The Java Project, Brooklyn, NY (2015). Crain is the co-founder and co-director of Topless, a seasonal gallery based in Rockaway Beach, NY since 2014. Crain’s recent curatorial projects include exhibitions at Roberta Pelan, Toronto, ON; Shanaynay, Paris, FR, and the 2016 Alumni Exhibition at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY. Crain will participate within the upcoming residency session at Rupert in Vilnius, Lithuania later in 2017.