Reception: Saturday, July 11, 6 - 9 PM, preceded by a reading from writers Chris O Cook, Greg Fuchs, Joe Millar, Chris Ross & Lauren Russell at 5 PM in the gallery.
GONORTH is very pleased to present a solo exhibition of work by Jonathan Allen entitled "Terminal Daydream". This is Allen's first solo show with the gallery.
Jonathan Allen's collages and paintings combine pop imagery, abstraction and propaganda to reflect the contradictions of our current cultural and political climate. His various media-oil/acrylic, pen and ink, pencil, and newspaper and magazine cuttings-sometimes coalesce in formal harmony, though more often they serve to diagram the breakdowns triggered by irreconcilable clashes in perspective. If culture is a language of forces operating in mixed agreement-desire, ethics, history, money, power-then the unlikely fusions in Allen's work represent a resonant voice in the conversation of who we are now. That Allen achieves this without sacrificing either aesthetic pleasure or contextual intelligibility is a credit to his resourcefulness and care, allowing for a dense and eccentric vision that lays bare our culture's often jagged and convoluted messages.
Jonathan Allen holds a BA in visual arts and art history from Columbia University. As well as being a recipient of the Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant, Allen was chosen for the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's Swing Space residency program, as well as The Bronx Museum of Art's Artist in the Marketplace program, and has exhibited at numerous galleries in New York, including Caren Golden Fine Art, Oliver Kamm/5BE, PS122 and Exit Art. His work recently entered the Microsoft Art Collection and in 2009 was exhibited at Wonderland Art Space, Copenhagen. He lives and works in Brooklyn and Queens.
Gallery hours: 12 - 6 PM Saturday and Sunday, and by appointment.
