Alumni Exhibition at Cohn Drennan Contemprary: Lunchmeat < Catfood

Jennifer Leigh Jones, Pleasure Pier,
Oil on Panel, 25.5 x 25.5”, 2013

Cohn Drennan Contemporary
Lunchmeat < Catfood
Ayrton Chapman, Bailey Chapman, Jennifer Leigh Jones and Alexander Revier

Opening Reception:
June 29, 2013
6-8pm

Exhibition Dates:
June 29 - Aug 3
Tues - Fri (10am - 5pm)
Sat (12 - 5pm)

lunchmeat < catfood
Ayrton Chapman, Bailey Chapman, Jennifer Leigh Jones and Alexander Revier
Opening Reception June 29, 2013, 6:00 – 8:00pm
Exhibition Dates, June 29 – August 3, 2013

Cohn Drennan Contemporary hosts four Denton artists, the Chapman sisters Ayrton and Bailey, Jennifer Jones, and Alex Revier, in the gallery’s annual summer exhibition. While an undergrad at the University of North Texas, Ayrton received a Clare Hart DeGoyler Memorial Fund grant from the Dallas Museum of Art and used those funds, combined with further support from a Kickstarter campaign, in producing Meattropolis, which will premiere at Cohn Drennan Contemporary. Bailey’s large scale alternate world abstract representations will be incorporated as part of Meattropolis and recent works from her Texas Woman’s University MFA thesis exhibition will also be exhibited. Jennifer Jones’ paintings are subtle in their ability to subvert the everyday and the normal while Alex Revier’s work represents a self-made, separate reality teeming with friendly and frightening new faces. Please join the gallery in experiencing and participating in this summer’s exhibition.

Ayrton Chapman, detail from Meattropolis,
2013, plastic, fiberglass, resin, rebar,
cotton string and enamel, 6' x 10' x 6'

Ayrton Chapman, The Origins of Meattropolis

Meattropolis, originally founded in 2079 by long term investor and business mogul Henry Percival Piddleview to create a safe living environment for his multitude of working staff. He lorded over a profitable textile industry and also had his fingers in many pies.
As the city engorged and grew, outsiders became attracted to it for its thriving economy and great smelling toast. He invented a new monetary exchange program in which simple land dwellers could trade their boring, incoherent lives for those of dazzling urbanites. All they had to do was trade their lives and time for the “sylvia” a small piece of paper signifying the number of hours each person had sacrificed to the great overlord Massefeso. (Otherwise known as the giver of numbers) They replaced their earthy existence with a highly processed, plasticine replica similar in color and texture.
They were contented with this existence, trading sometimes even their entire lives to be engulfed in the Meattropolis and its luscious tendrils. But, strangely enough as the city grew larger it began to decay. The crushing number of inhabitants pulverized the very life in the ground below their feet. The earth below them began to die and give way and whole sections of the city sank into the lifeless mire.
The mayor EMPEROR PRECINCT ADVISER OVER REGULATIONS H.M.T.L.Q. Perbert Penneysicle decided that strength in numbers and faith in the “sylvia” would win this war with the ground. He bought the finest concrete and the most advanced metals to fill the holes and rebuild the town. But his efforts were fruitless, as time passed people became bored with fiber woven textiles (as were created at the Piddleview Tear’em Up and Fold ‘em Back Together Plant) and turned their attention to gel-type and InFiniWeb products (all created in a distant galaxy in the inner core of an exploding star). The inhabitants lost interest due to lack of economic bulge and moved on to another sector of the planet while the city sat quiet, saving it’s breath, awaiting it’s next inhabitant’s arrival.

Bailey Chapman, Sandwich,
2013, acrylic on canvas, 48" x 48"

Bailey Chapman recently completed her MFA at Texas Woman’s University and her work was included in the 2013 Fresh Meat exhibition at 500X. For Bailey, painting is about submersing the viewer in a world separate from everyday reality while referencing nature and its’ dominance. Working with alternate materials including brooms, bricks, sticks, her feet, strings, or hair produces the effects that happen purposefully and haphazardly until Chapman edits the piece down until she has reached a balance.

Jennifer Leigh Jones, Revisited, 2012,
charcoal and acrylic on MDF, 24½" x 32"

Jennifer Leigh Jones is a 2009 MFA graduate from UNT and is adjunct faculty at her alma mater. D Magazine designated Jones as one of the New Dallas Nine in 2009 - Jennifer Jones’ upbringing in a family of artists saw her major in drawing and painting at Baylor, where her father taught. A year spent in Florence instructed her as well. Influenced by surrealism, minimalism, Jenny Saville, and more, Jones’ work explores the relationship between objects and the memories they trigger. She is fascinated by the manner in which the mind processes life events, making each object she incorporates inextricably bound to the memory of events. Jennifer has exhibited extensively throughout Texas and the gallery is pleased to be exhibiting a new series from her distinct body of work.

Alex Revier, Party Council,
2009-2012, mixed media on
paper, 30" x 22"

Alex Revier is a recent BFA graduate from UNT who works obsessively with his drawings and paintings, collecting and displaying the works in his studio until they mutate into installations, video and performance, then de-installing the collection and starting over. This technique of “unique clutter”, says Revier, “seeps seamlessly into my work that simultaneously celebrates and criticizes my role in society.”

For more information about lunchmeat < catfood or for more information about Cohn Drennan Contemporary, please go to www.cohndrennancontemporary.com or call 214.708.8051 or e-mail cohn@cohndrennancontemporary.com.

The gallery is located at 1107 Dragon, Dallas, TX and hours of operation are Tuesday through Friday 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Saturday 12:00 to 5:00 p.m.