Jessica Mein

25/08/2018 - 29/09/2018

Galeria Leme is pleased to announce its third solo exhibition by the Buenos Aires-based Brazilian artist Jessica Mein. The show features an installation of video-animations, as well as a set of geometric, woven works on hemp.

The exhibition unfolds from a decade-long investigation about the physicality of images and the importance of the supports, surfaces and techniques. Jessica employs obsolete materials found in places where she lived, such as printed hemp spice bags, images of accumulated electricity wires from the city of Dubai, as well as residual billboards from São Paulo and Buenos Aires. The video installation “Quase” [Almost] is comprised of two animations. An image of two coconut trees, captured from a faded tourist advertisement about Brazil in Buenos Aires, naturally loaded with exoticism and melancholic cliché, is interrupted by an Argentinian train as the starting point. The process involves the overlapping of layers, marked with carbon paper, cuts and folds, finalized by scanning, creating a time-space disorder. They have different durations, gaining more and more disparity while being shown in a loop. Never in synch and, therefore, never repeated.

Part of the technique used by the artist is to interrupt the textile of the fabric, reconfiguring it in new delicate and varied geometric patterns. Mein’s process also employs dyeing using the carbon, which transfers colour to the fabric that absorbs the ink throughout its composition, front and back. These processes are complemented by the practice of frottage, allowing the artist to print other shapes and colours by rubbing the carbon and graffiti against the surface, which becomes image. Jessica revisits the practice of the women of her family, embroiders and lace-makers, from the state of Pernambuco. For this exhibition, she brings together her on-going research on de-construction and misalignment, in a dialogue with the methodical, obsessive and anxious gestures.

About the artist:

Jessica Mein. Born in São Paulo, Brazil, 1975. Lives and works in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Among her solo shows are: Desvios, Simon Preston, New York (2016); Tramas, Galeria Leme, Sao Paulo (2015); Obras, Simon Preston, New York (2013); The Pavilion Downtown, Dubai (2012). And for the group shows: Becoming the Image, Projects at Fifteen, Tel Aviv, Israel (2015); Wellin Museum, Hamilton College, New York, USA (2013); New York University, Abu Dhabi, United Arabs Emirates (2013); Harvard University, Cambridge, USA (2012); The Street Files Biennial, Museo del Barrio, New York, USA (2011); Julia Stoschek Foundation, Dusseldorf, Germany (2011); Drawing Center, New York, EUA (2011); Museo Tamayo de Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico (2006). She also took part of the following residence programs: A.i.R. – Art Dubai and Delfina Foundation, both in 2015-16.

Her work is part of the public collections of Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA; Julia Stoschek Foundation, Dusseldorf, Germany; and Museu de Arte Contemporânea, São Paulo.

 

Click here for the exhibition catalog.

Quase 2018

Vídeo a esquerda da instalação

Quase, 2018

Vídeo a direita da instalação