Continuing through October 8, 2016
New paintings and sculptural assemblages by the masterful Marilyn Jolly come together to form one of the most exciting exhibitions this year. The almost forty pieces on view comprise a comprehensive survey; she seems to effortlessly handle a wide range of media including wood, gesso, fabric, sand, paper, charcoal, linen, acrylic, encaustic, graphite, vellum, wire, reed, metal, clay and collage elements. Her use of materials is classic studio art practice that looks back toward early modern sources such as classic cubist avant-garde painting, as well as sixties-era assemblage art and European nouveau realism. The works' embrace of imperfect beauty and transience is informed by the Japanese concept of wabi-sabi. There is a notable balance between structural precariousness and fragility against a convincing aesthetic authority.
Jolly arranges her eclectic materials into intriguing sculptures, such as the sixty-six inch tall "Building Self/No Self," a wooden columnar edifice forming the substructure that supports collaged elements, pieces of canvas painted with multicolored dots and abstract imagery. The piece is also adorned with natural elements like thin tree branches and pieces of wood that look like they’ve been repurposed as art materials. In the intimate work on paper “Antisocial," a spare surface with a long vertical pull of white paint on the left is countered with a ball of darker pigment supported by three lines that run downwards, holding up the form like three legs. Simple and elegant, the piece captures the artist at her best. Jolly revels in the process as much as coming to a stopping point, and has a great eye for gauging that correct moment.
