April 17, 2011
Me and my Shadow
10 March - 17 April 2011
Press Release
Me and My Shadow features three artists who, working across diverse media, manipulate material, line and colour to leave a personal imprint on the world. Jennifer Cohen, Marta Pierobon and Emma Talbot unite feminine expression in the physical presence of their art - from bold geometric shapes to delicately painted figurines.
Jennifer Cohen's sculptures cut through the gallery in strong concrete lines. Sharp angles end surprisingly in gilded hands and feet; odd shoes or painted nails stretch out from curved arches, cornered configurations replacing where their bodies would be. Cohen's patterns draw out their own typographies: thin but sturdy; fixed, but somehow animated, like frantic jazz hands at the end of a dance.
Marta Pierobon also encrusts parts of her object sculptures in gold, though her shapes tend towards the rounded, the spherical and the miniature. Pierobon places these solid entities next to abstract compositions, balancing matter in the space that she designs. These sculptures, says Pierobon, are built from hidden narratives, which she chooses to conceal from the viewer.
The narratives of Emma Talbot's paintings, meanwhile, suggest with emotional candidness scenes of longing, lust or loss. We are taken to the interior worlds of figures that are almost cartoon-like in their naivety, yet that possess a melancholy of complex intimacy. Their blank faces and graphic tears spell the universality of their secrets, spilt in dripping black outline and fluid handwriting. The sculptures of this exhibition cast literal shadows of their forms, while Talbot's watercolour storyboards leave shadow-traces of the artist's own existence.
Jennifer Cohen born 1970 in Brooklyn, New York; lives and works in Brooklyn. Her last solo exhibition was Grey Lines in Formations, Salon '94 Freemans, New York, 2010. Her work has also been included in recent group exhibitions at Circus, Berlin and White Columns, New York.
Marta Pierobon born 1979 in Brescia, Italy; lives between Brescia and New York. Her latest solo exhibition, Quarantottometriquadri, opened in February at A Palazzo Gallery, Brescia and runs until 31 March. Recent group exhibitions include La Fioritura del Bambu, VIAFARINI, Milan, 2009; New season No reason, Neon Fdv, Milan 2008; Fine de Siecle, Estudiotres, Chicago, 2007.
Emma Talbot born 1969 Worcestershire; lives and works in London. Her most recent solo exhibition was Pictures From My Heart, Transition Gallery, London, 2010. Recent group exhibitions include Told, Hales Gallery, London 2011; Party!, New Art Gallery, Walsall, 2010; Jerwood Drawing Prize, Jerwood Space, London, 2008.
Emma Talbot
Me and My Shadow, 2011 acrylic on canvas, 210.5 x 155 cm