Volta NY

Jade Townsend at Volta New York 

Gallery Poulsen will be a part of this year’s edition of Volta New York March 7-10th, 2013, where we present Jade Townsend (US) Solo.

VOLTA NY is an invitational show of emerging solo artists’ projects and the American incarnation of the successful young fair founded in Basel in 2005. VOLTA NY was created in 2008 by Artistic Director Amanda Coulson as a tightly-focused, boutique event that is a place for discovery, a showcase for relevant art contemporary positions regardless of the artist's or gallery’s age.

82 Mercer St, NYC
March 7-10

For more information: http://ny.voltashow.com/index.php

"Old Hat"  graphite, charcoal, prisma color, oil and ink on paper, 122 x 69 cm, 2013

With Jade Townsend’s artwork, one is captivated by his universe and his cross-aesthetic practice, ranging from beautiful detail-oriented drawings to large theatrical installations. His installations engage the viewer to become part of what he builds in various exhibition spaces with a fascinating result. With the drawings, entire worlds and universes are constructed and presented to us. Jade Townsend's artworks have a universal nerve to them that transcend cultures, as he applies a universal visual language known from our earliest memories in literature and history. There is a use of materials and historical imagery that animates his artworks, with a handcrafted expression that cause us to be captivated by them. His works are loaded with timber, ships, kings, hobos, death, tarot cards and mysticism and they are keen to illuminate our existing systems and question their limitations and their flaws.   

Please visit Gallery Poulsen.

Tarot Series 6 & 7

Tarot Series.

Roughly 13"x22"

Graphite, charcoal, prisma color, oil and ink on paper

Tarot Series 4 and 5

The latest two from the Tarot Series.

Roughly 13"x 22"

Graphite, prisma color, oil pastel and ink on paper.

Art in the Age of Political Absurdity

I'm very excited to be a part of this show and get the chance to show Hooray for Progress for the first time in New York City.  For a preview of the piece installed at the McNay Museum in San Antonio, click here:

144 West 14th Street

New York, NY 10011

Monday - Saturday 

11am to 6pm

Thursday until 8pm

Opening Reception:
Thursday, September 27, 6−8 PM

On View: 
September 28−November 10, 2012

Guest Curators: 

Eleanor Heartney and Larry Litt

Just in time for election season, "Party Headquarters: Art in the Age of Political Absurdity" updates the grand tradition of political satire to shine a light on the American psyche in an era of political polarization. Works in a range of media take on the pressing questions of the day, among them the social consequences of greed, the corrosive effects of money and religion in politics, the contradictory aspirations embodied by the American Dream, and the destructive outcome of unquestioning faith in American exceptionalism. With wit, satire, and passion, the artists in this show urge us to acknowledge both the strengths and the follies of contemporary America and ask if we are living up to our own best beliefs. 

Artists:

Donna Catanzaro

Enrique Chagoya

Michael D'Antuono

Sally Edelstein

Jerry Kearns

Ian Laughlin

Kara Maria

Greta Pratt

Duke Riley

Peter Saul

Federico Solmi

Jade Townsend

Mark Wagner

Martin Wilner

In conjunction with the exhibition, a New York Mobile Voter Registration Center designed by artist Duke Riley (M.F.A '08) will tour the streets of Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens.  

Our fifth annual Pratt Falls political caberet, produced by Larry Litt, will take place in the gallery on October 16, October 30 and November 6 at 7pm.  

Please visit www.pratt.edu/exhibitions for more information.

Image credits (left to right): Michael D'Antuono, American Pie, 2010, oil on canvas, 42 x 46 inches; Greta Pratt, "Rodney Parker", from the series Liberty Wavers, 2010-2012, photographic installation, 22 x 28 inches.  

Tarot Series

Busy Summer.
Powhida and I are currently producing work for a collaborative show at Gallery Poulsen for late September. I have also begun a series of small drawings based on the Tarot deck.  Below are the first 3 of that series.

Roughly 10"x 20"

Graphite, charcoal, prisma color, oil pastel and ink on paper.

More to come...

Leviathan Installation Views

Leviathan is open at Lesley Heller Workspace (54 Orchard St)  until May 25th. Go check it out!  And thanks to everyone who made it out in the storm on opening night!   

For press release and thank yous, scroll to bottom of entry

For drawing images and details, see former blog posts here, here, here and here.  

Installation photos by Kitty Joe Sainte-Marie:

 bumper sticker by the amazing Allison Hester

Jade Townsend’s new body of work, Leviathan, assembles an absurd and fragmented narrative. As told by an amalgam of outcasts – the rebel, the orphan, the mystic – a coalescing set of stories manifests as a sculptural passageway through which to pass and return. Similar to his past mixed media sculptures and installations that critique and intensify tragic sociopolitical realities, Leviathan layers multiple myths and allegories, along with their archetypal characters, to pursue the conflicting destinations of contentment and rebellion. Whether or not such a goal is achievable is of little concern. Rather, as Townsend has continued exorcise in his work, it is the failure to see what is given up as we seek what we wish to gain. “Now, from this peculiar sideway position of the whale's eyes, it is plain that he can never see an object which is exactly ahead, no more than he can one exactly astern.” Moby Dick In Townsend’s account, the inevitable blind spot of futile pursuits is reified in the gallery as an abandoned commercial box truck. Entered through the rear of its empty corpus and delivered to the decapitated head, the everyday Leviathan is simultaneously the whale and the ship that sought its demise. As it lies in state, the delivery truck serves as a prop of triumph and defeat. Surrounded by drawn imagery of misguided rebels, reckless strivers and their delusional conquests and superstitions, the gutted beast foretells their fate. Unable to see what is in front of them, the vision-impaired Ahab, Sisyphus, and the tarot reader mingle together, each interrupting the others’ tales of implacable affliction and curse. 

Jade Townsend lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. Recent shows include 'New Image Sculpture' at the McNay Museum in San Antonio, TX and 'Drawn to You' at Gallery Poulsen in Copenhagen, DK. He is currently working on a collaborative exhibition with William Powhida in Denmark.

A very special thank you to:

Lesley Heller and John Baber at Lesley Heller Workspace

Eric Patton

James Case Leal

David Petersen

Michael Petersen and Arthur Gandy at All Sorts Inc.

Duke Riley

William Powhida

Lisa Schroeder

Lynn Sullivan

Allison Hester

Kitty Joe Sainte-Marie

Luc Birebent & Jenny Taylor at CFL Art Services

Jeff Wood

Leviathan

Leviathan, Installation View
(photo: Kitty Joe Sainte-Marie)


Exhibition opening tonight April the 22nd 6-8pm

Lesley Heller Workspace           54 Orchard Street New York, NY 10002                            t: 212 410 6120

Jade Townsend: Leviathan April 22 - May 25, 2012 Opening Reception: Sunday, April 22, 6-8pm                      TONIGHT!! Leviathan, 2012, graphite, charcoal, oil pastel,  Prisma Color and ink on paper, 42" x 48" www.lesleyheller.com

Smudge

For the past couple of months I've been collaborating with the good folks at Attic Rep on the set design for their production of Rachel Axler's play Smudge. I'm headed down to San Antonio today for the opening and a couple of artist talks. It's going to be an exciting week! Here are the details and some press links.....

WHERE CONTEMPORARY ART MEETS THEATRE

AtticRep is proud to welcome Jade Townsend back to San Antonio with two special events celebrating his work at the McNay Art Museum and on our production of SMUDGE.

See Express News - Debra Martin

Jade Townsend returns to collaborate with AtticRep's artistic director Roberto Prestigiacomo, production designer Rick Frederick and local visual artists; Jeremiah Teutsch and Emily Barker to reinterpret his installation An Allegory of Taste: Between Here and There for the stage. This work was recently featured in the McNay's New Image Sculpture exhibition currated by Rene Barilleaux.

join the conversation

Artist Talk with Jade Townsend

Meet the artist and learn about his work

Blue Star Contemporary Art Center

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

6:30 - 8:00 PM

This event is free to the public

Matinee Performance and Talk-Back

Come to see SMUDGE and stay to discuss the process of adapting sculpture for the stage.

AtticRep, Attic Theatre, Ruth Taylor Theatre Building, Trinity University Campus, Stadium Drive entrance.

Sunday, August 21, 2011

2:30 PM performance followed by a talk-back

Join us after for a special Happy Hour downtown at theEsquire Tavern

SMUDGE a one-act play by two-time Emmy winner, Rachel Axler is a dark comedy exploring the question: Can love conquer all? A couple struggles with the limits of love and cheesecake in the face of giving birth to a "smudge" instead of the expected child. The dark whimsy of this play fits perfectly with Townsend, whose work explores themes of displacement and allegory. SMUDGE opens August 18th and runs through September 4th, 2011

Performances Thursday, Friday and Saturdays - 8 PM Sundays - 2:30 PM Adults - $20 / Seniors, Military and Seniors - $18 / Students - $10 The Attic theatre seats 70 with no seat more than 10 feet from the stage. All seats are general so reservations or advance purchases of tickets are recommended.

BUY TICKETS NOW

These conversations are brought to you in collaboration with our cultural partners, Blue Star Contemporary Art Center and theMcNay Contemporary Collectors Forum