1.26.2025
Plaza Library Quiet Exhibition and Reception
Thank you for taking time out of your day to visit the library today.
My entire body of work is a non-linear abstract biography.
The work in this exhibition spans 2009-2013 while I was living in Upstate NY and NYC.
BIG HEART FACE and study (the mini-me)
oil on canvas, 2009-2010
While living in Poughkeepsie New York on a Quaker boarding school campus, in my home studio, I began a specific regiment of color study. This project was completed during my first days of grad school in my Hunter College Hell’s Kitchen studio.
First, color by color, I would make as many variations of a certain hue. I had smaller canvases for these variations. Then I deposited the remaining paint on to large 44”x 44” canvases. Therefore, every color appearing on the mini-me also appears on the 44”x44” canvas. This is an opportunity to have color interact based on where it was placed and what colors it is adjacent to.
These paintings are also studies in gesture: the internal momentum and brush strokes of each color was highly considered. The large painting is named after the heart shape at eye level. Originally there were two large and about a dozen small works.
WAVE I, II, III
charcoal on paper, 2011
My work usually begins with an attraction to the material and, in this case, basic interaction of smudging the charcoal with surfaces of my hand onto soft paper. Quickly, abstraction reminded me of water and the quiet momentous surge of large waves before they crash.
HUNTER TRIPTYCH
graphite, matte medium and oil on canvas, 2013
I misguided authority
II escape vessel
III sailing on
I relocated from St. Louis to Poughkeepsie, New York in 2008. I was accepted into Hunter College MFA program in 2010.
I was diligent in my studio work and studies but my practice was overwhelmingly misunderstood during reviews. After my second review, I was asked to leave the program and only successfully earned my degree with the support of one professor and an appeal process. This process delayed my graduation one semester but also created a silver lining.
The summer before my final (Fall 2013) semester of grad school, the MFA program relocated from Hell’s Kitchen to Tribeca. My new graduating class was allowed to remain in the old building and choose from a wide variety of large studio spaces to work in. It was a painters dream come true……and logically, to do the space and opportunity justice: Big Studio = Big Work
Even through my thesis exhibition work and most of my time painting was done in Upstate New York during weekly excursions to the Hudson River Valley, these 3 painted images materialized naturally and organically in my Hell’s Kitchen studio and tell the story of this time.
Thank you, again!
See more process and behind the scenes @
JennaBauerSTUDIO.blogspot.com
JennaBauerWORK.blogspot.com
JennaBauer.com