Jared Pankin: Bonsai

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WHEN: April 18 – May 17, 2008

HOURS: TUES – SAT, 11-6 or by appointment

RECEPTION: Friday, April 18, from 7-9 p.m.





We are pleased to present Jared Pankin in his third solo exhibition at the Carl Berg Gallery. The show is entitled “Bonsai” and is a continuation of his ongoing exploration of man and nature.

The exhibition title “Bonsai” aptly describes Pankin’s continued search of man’s investigation of and attempts to conquer nature. The word Bonsai has two divergent meanings; one being an expression of the adoptive cliché of an impulsive leap into the unknown while the other meaning refers to the historical oriental practice of manipulating horticulture. In this exhibition Pankin explores both meanings of Bonsai in his search of man’s place in nature.

Chinese Bonsai is said to be the landscape of imagination and often conjures up the idea of the miniature. “To appreciate and find pleasure in curiously curved potted trees is to love deformity,” Pankin states. For the Japanese, on the other hand, Bonsai represents a fusion of ancient beliefs with Eastern Philosophies of the harmony between man, the soul and nature. Many of these ideas in Japanese as well as in Chinese Bonsai have influenced the conceptual and esthetic practice of his sculpture.

The materials Pankin uses are seemingly random mostly synthetic materials ranging from carpet remnants, to expandable foam and tinted latex grafted with taxidermied parts and selected discarded wood acting as armatures and that have been cut, nailed, and glued to suite the artist’s esthetics. Both the choice of materials and the scale of the work are specific to the individual tone and demeanor of each piece. In many respects, the process could be viewed as akin to drawing as elements are both added and subtracted until the piece is finished. It is this process that has enabled the artist to create sculptures of enormous power and subtle humor that tears down and reconfigures what is natural or man-made.

Pankin’s work embraces elements of science, fact and fiction. Regardless of the serious conceptual weight, the intrinsic humor and peculiarities in the work generate balance and consistency. The details within the forms create the individual narratives in each of the works. Together the finished and the unrefined, the obscured and exposed materials completes the poetic charge.

Pankin’s new body of work explores fresh territory while still evolving from his previous artistic oeuvre. This exhibition embodies a culmination of Pankin’s decade long exploration of nature through hybridized forms that combined elements of flora, fauna and landscape and man influence upon them.

For more information contact: Carl Berg: Tel: 323-931-6060.