scabland, 2017. latex, plaxiglas
JENENE NAGY's practice includes both architectural interventions built entirely onsite from mundane building materials and the creation of discreet objects and drawings in the studio. In both cases, the work is materially-driven with an emphasis on surface, endurance, labor and line. Jenene earned her BFA from University of Arizona (1998) and her MFA from University of Oregon (2004). She is a 2017 Artist-in-Residence at Pulp and Deckle Papermaking Studio in Portland. She is currently preparing for a solo show at Samuel Freeman Gallery (Los Angeles, fall 2017) and a two-person show with Joshua West Smith at Whitter College’s Greenleaf Galley (Los Angeles, spring 2018). Her work is represented by Samuel Freeman Gallery in Los Angeles, PDX CONTEMPORARY ART in Portland and Michael Warren Contemporary in Denver. Jenene lives and works in Riverside, California.
OtherPeoplesPixels: What materials are you repeatedly drawn to in your installations, sculptures and drawings?
Jenene Nagy:
With all of the work I employ low tech materials. The drawings and the
objects are mostly all paper and graphite, and the projects are all
common building materials (drywall, 2x4s, house paint). I like working
with my hands in a very direct way, and I also like to keep it simple.
It is exciting to me to see what kind of results I can get with mundane
elements. When I first began making the large projects, drywall was easy
to work with and only required a box cutter and a drill. I don’t really
have patience for a lot of tools and working in this way let the
evidence of my hand remain.
Once the projects—Tidal,
for example—became large enough to require more people to help me
produce them, I became less interested in making them. So I introduced a
new material in out/look and cover,
which allowed me to still work large but independently. Tyvek is just a
big gigantic sheet, so I could move it all around by myself. The
projects have been built in venues in different parts of the country but
working with common building materials I am able to order everything
ahead from a Lowes or Home Depot and have everything delivered to the
site as opposed to having to hunt down speciality items.
The Crystal Land, 2014. latex, Mylar, plexigalss, wood.
OPP: Symmetry is very present in installations like scabland (2017) and The Crystal Land (2014). The illusion of symmetry is present in disappear here (2016). But older installations like out/look (2010), Tidal (2010) and s/plit (2008) depend more on asymmetry. Was this a conscious shift or just a symptom of the spaces you were showing in?
JN:
Around 2010 my studio practice shifted dramatically. Before that, I was
making the onsite projects exclusively and the time in the studio was
mostly experimenting with materials and testing colors. After a long
residency in Los Angeles, I began using the studio to make discrete
images and objects. Since that time the studio practice has become
almost ritualized, I think as a result of making the drawings. The
drawings are meditative and quite but intense. I think I can attribute
the symmetry now present in the projects to the types of compositions I
am working on with the drawings but also as a result of a more focused
practice.
OPP: Could you talk about the relationship between labor and impermanence in your site-specific installations?
JN: I
am interested creating a space for the viewer to have a true
experience. I think the fact that the projects are in essence fleeting
spaces there becomes a kind of urgency to the viewing. Labor is critical
to setting up that urgency.
b1, 2014. graphite on folded paper. 14"x12.5"
OPP: The installations make consistent use of bold solid
colors while the drawings traffic in the subtle grey tones of graphite.
How does color or lack of color relate to scale in your work?
JN:
In the onsite projects, color becomes content. I always think of the
projects as landscape paintings. The color is always borrowing from the
surrounding area—or in the case of the early work, a remembered space
and time—and then hyper-realized, resulting in a punched-up pallet.
In
the drawings I don’t think of color or lack of color, I think more
about surface and material. With both the projects and the drawings, the
viewer is asked to engage physically. They need to move through the
installations to fully experience them. In the drawings they need to
walk from left to right and close up and further away for the
compositions to reveal themselves. I can’t say I am making intentional
choices with regard to color pallette and scale but I am interested in
seeing how the colors shift our perceptions of the space. In scabland, the brightness of the color really opened the space up, but in Destroyer the color shrank it.
p1, 2013. graphite on paper. 28"x 40"
OPP: Tell us briefly about your history as a curator.
JN:
In 2006 I opened Tilt Gallery and Project Space in Portland, Oregon
with artist Joshua West Smith. In that program, we exhibited
site-responsive projects and works that were difficult to show in a
commercial setting. After a two-and-a half-year run, we closed the brick
and mortar space and shifted to working as an independent curatorial
team under the moniker TILT Export:,
which is ongoing. We wanted to give ourselves and the artists we work
with more flexibility. As TILT Export: we produce shows in partnership
with a variety of venues including commercial galleries, academic
institutions and non-profits. We wanted to give Portland artists
opportunities to show work in other cities and to bring work from other
places back to Portland.
From 2011-12 I was the first Curator-in-Residence for Disjecta Contemporary Art Center
and currently serve as Curator and Gallery Director at Los Angeles
Valley College. At LAVC my role is different because the exhibition
program is in support of our department curriculum. The exhibitions are
intended to enhance students’ experience and understanding of
contemporary art and to provide a space for critical thinking and the
development of observational skills.
object 2, 2014. palladium gilded papier-mâché and concrete. 59" x 16 1/4" x 12 1/2"
OPP: What’s your curatorial process like? How is it different from the way you work as an artist?
JN:
I don’t often think of myself as a curator in the traditional sense. I
think more of what I do in this role is create opportunities and give
artists the support to develop ideas. This in turn becomes a bit of a
collaboration then, as opposed to the very solitary way I work in the
studio.
OPP: Speaking of the solitary space of the studio, what’s happening in there right now that no one else has seen?
JN: My
studio right now has lots and lots of tiny torn paper pieces that are
being mounted on paper and then coated with a graphite paint I am making
that then gets burnished. I am interested in continuing to push my
materials and see what new things can be discovered. In the latest work,
the paper becomes the mark as opposed to the mark being drawn.
Featured Artist Interviews are conducted by Chicago-based artist Stacia Yeapanis. When she’s not writing for OPP, Stacia explores the relationship between repetition, desire and impermanence in cross-stitch embroideries, remix video, collage and impermanent installations. She is an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Fiber and Material Studies at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where received her MFA in 2006, and was a 2011-2012 Artist-in-Residence at BOLT in Chicago. Her solo exhibitions include shows at Siena Heights University (2013), Heaven Gallery (2014), the Annex Gallery at Lillstreet Art Center (2014) and Witness, an evolving, durational installation at The Stolbun Collection (Chicago 2017), that could only be viewed via a live broadcast through a Nestcam. Now that the installation is complete, you can watch it via time lapse. Her upcoming solo show Sacred Secular will open on August 11, 2017 at Indianapolis Art Center.