http://www.plusgallery.com/
JENNY MORGAN
"Fixated Flux"
ARTIST'S INFORMATION:
March 8, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Jenny Morgan has been selected for inclusion in the Outwin Boochever 2006 Portraiture Competition sponsored by Washington D.C’s Smithsonian Institution. Morgan's portrait "Falling Into," which was first presented to the public in November of 2005 as part of the artist's exhibition "Mine Not Yours," is an oil painting that was selected from a semifinalist pool of 100 artists culled from an entry base of over four thousand artists from across the United States in 2005. The Exhibition associated with the competition will be on view at Washington D.C.'s National Portrait Gallery from July 1, 2006 until February 18, 2007, and will be the lead exhibition for the grand opening of the Gallery.
The jury for the competition included Carolyn K. Carr, Deputy Director and Chief Curator, National Portrait Gallery; Trevor Fairbrother, Independent Scholar and Curator, Boston, Mass; Brandon Fortune, Associate Curator of Painting & Sculpture, National Portrait Gallery; Thelma Goodman; Deputy Director, Exhibitions and Programs, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY; Sidney Goodman, Artist, Philadelphia, Pa; Marc Pachter, Director, National Portrait Gallery and Katy Siegel, Associate Professor, Hunter College, CUNY, and Contributing Editor, Artforum
About the artist Jenny Morgan
Jenny Morgan emerged onto the Denver art scene in a manner that is both rare and respected. A 2003 graduate and Valedictorian of Denver's prestigious Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design, Morgan utilizes oil paints to create dramatic realist portraits that resonate with deep emotional impact. Minimal in style, her works are uniquely cropped to reveal parts of the body, sometimes in motion, other times static. The figures are commonly intertwined with a fabric element that creates a powerful, emotional symbol with strong historic traditions but framed with a signature style. The 24 year old artist often works in diptychs and triptychs that create a unique visual flow while also promoting a sense of separation of the body.
"Through the self-portrait, I use the body as a vehicle for self-examination, but also a way to connect the human experience of one person to a wide audience. I hope to communicate my world in a way that the viewer can react and relate." - J. Morgan
Morgan's talent as a painter was quickly recognized by + gallery owner Ivar Zeile as well as local art-legend Phil Bender, director of renowned local artist run gallery Pirate. Morgan's first exhibitions at Pirate served as a proving ground for her skills and innate ability to put together fluid and consistent bodies of work, immediately delivering a signature style through her figurative works that drew both praise and local collector interest. Following her ground-breaking exhibition "Soliloquies" at Pirate in 2004, Zeile determined that Morgan was more than ready to move into the commercial realm and become one of the galleries youngest represented artists.
In May of 2005, Morgan debuted a new body of work "First Person" at + gallery alongside two of the cities most recognized local artists, Peter Illig and John McEnroe. Success was not immediate within the new environment, but Morgan concluded the year with tremendous success. Her artwork was selected for inclusion into the prestigious national juried publication "New American Paintings," along with three other artists from the + gallery stable. The publication brought immediate attention to the young artist from a larger market, securing her first sales outside of Colorado, including a significant purchase of three canvases by the Museum of Fine Arts Key West in Florida. Morgan and the gallery were notified of her acceptance as a semifinalist in the Outwin Boochever 2006 Portraiture Competition in October of 2005, ultimately leading to her selection as a finalist this year. Morgan is currently producing a new series of paintings that will serve as her first solo-exhibition at + gallery, scheduled for September 2006.
WES MAGYAR
"Study of Lucas"
