FUTURE PERFECT

Jenny Kemp, Charles Sommer, and Katie Neece
On view: December 19th – January 24th, 2021

FUTURE PERFECT features transcendental works that function as portals to unimagined and surprising new realities. This exhibition features the subtly painted abstractions of Jenny Kemp,  otherworldly graphite drawings by Charles Sommer and the refined yet bold oils by Katie Neece.

Jenny Kemp’s paintings focus on line and pattern and its ability to embody conduits for trains of thought. Creating rhythmic spaces where compositions begin with a revelatory moment and grow into a reactionary process in which linear marks thread, converse and evolve into teeming forms. Housed within evocative shapes that reference personal events and musings, these become visual manifestations of discovery, habitude, and navigation.

Charles Sommer’s work is an investigation into an alternate universe and world of his own. Using drawing as a departure point, he invents his own cosmology, abstracted from science fiction, unexplained phenomena, queerness, masculinity, as well as architecture and the history of abstract art. The work, often obsessive in regards to control and compositional balance, utilizes a set of rules and rigid visual vocabulary. The work connects disparate elements and ideas about space and how it can be depicted, shifting between representational and queer coded abstraction. Sommer is interested in the intersections between physical and psychological spaces while primarily focusing on the use of landscapes in order to solicit otherworldly associations.  

Polishing and embossing the paper with a mechanical graphite pencil and powdered graphite allows Sommer to explore the material for its inherent matte and reflective qualities. Thinking of his drawings as autonomous objects rather than images, allowing the work to exist not just as representations of a world but rather the world itself.

Using traditional oil painting techniques that rely on nuanced physical touch and demanding skill, Katie Neece’s work incorporates imagery from computer graphics software programs and related digital ephemera. She creates an artificial pictorial space using gradients, drop shadows, and flat areas to construct an illusionistic environment within the conventions of the screen and digital manifestations of space. Choosing to paint the digital constructions draws attention to both advancements in technology and the advancements in the historical trajectory of painting.

Neece uses the pictorial language of geometric abstraction among the early 20th century European avant-garde, while simultaneously focusing on 90’s American mall aesthetic, pop culture and design aesthetic. She incorporates and uses these forms as a reference to an inherent optimism in a utopian future that has continually failed to materialize. This re-contextualization is an attempt to illustrate that the past continually reminds us of the future’s failure in the form of haunting.

Jenny Kemp (Troy, NY) received her MFA in painting from the University at Albany, SUNY, NY and a Bachelor in Art from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She recently mounted a solo show at Gold/Scopophilia in Montclair, NJ. She has exhibited at Transmitter, NY; Kenise Barnes Fine Art, Kent, CT; GRIDSPACE, NY, among others. Kemp is a recipient of the NYFA fellowship in painting, 2015. Her work has been featured in 100 Painters of Tomorrow (Thames & Hudson), New American Paintings, The Huffington Post, Seattle’s City Arts.

Charles Sommer (Brooklyn, NY) received his MFA in studio art from CUNY Brooklyn College in 2016 and his BFA in studio art and drawing from the University of South Florida in Talpa, FL. ‘Future Perfect’ will be his second show with 5-50 Gallery, after a two person show at Spring/Break Art Fair, NY, earlier this year. His work has been exhibited at Ortega Y Gassett, NY; Tiger Strikes Astroid, NY; Supercolider, Los Angeles, CA and Paradise Palase in Brooklyn. Sommer was an artist in residence at Wassaic Projects,  NY and at the Vermont Studio Center, VT.

Katie Neece (South Bend, Indiana) Received her BFA in Drawing & Painting from Indiana University – South Bend, IN, in 2013, including a minor in Art History. She recently received her MFA in painting from the Notre Dame University, IN. Her work has been exhibited at 0-0 LA, Los Angeles, CA; Zhou B. Art Center, Chicago, ILL; The University of Winona, MN and 404_gallery, a virtual gallery. Neece’s work has been featured in publications as Friends of the Artist, Create Magazine and Rung Magazine (United Kingdom).

Download the Press Release, including image list, here.