Jennifer Reeves

Jennifer Reeves concocts unexpected continuities between abstract form and representational object which play out in mysteriously precarious scenes.  Reeves convincingly prevents things from tipping-off the edge into overt kitsch by the way she orients her imagery (full moons, evergreen trees, brick walls, interior rooms with panoramic windows) within a composition to heighten their visual and psychological impact.  In other words, Reeves creates contradictions between logical narrative and aesthetic craft.  It is this inherent tension that roils just below the surface of her hand worked monotypes published by Aurobora.   Reeves accomplishes this by allowing the printed surfaces to stand on their own, apart from the various narrative elements that rise unpredictably from seemingly uneventful scenes.  Then, by adding anthropomorphic blobs of color, spiral-topped sticks, or smudged line segments as if they were our stand-in doubles, the artist builds a tenuous bridge of familiarity and convincingly suggests that abstract material in its flux and transmutations can accurately reflect the fragile human condition in all its many confused faces.

AUROBORA PROJECT

October 2004