October 17 - December 21, 2002

JEFF PRICE

Paintings and Sculptures

Margarete Roeder Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of new works by Jeff Price entitled Paintings and Sculptures from October 17 - December 21, 2002. A reception for the artist will be held on Thursday, October 17, from 6 - 8 PM. Dwell                    Boton The recent paintings are densely painted, with accumulated and veiled surfaces. In all the works an approximate, almost indeterminate shape appears repeatedly. The corpuscular, ovoid form, more precisely a lingam, an ancient Hindu form, is a symbol of the Gods, usually Shiva. The lingam represents the phallus, the male generative force, often in conjunction with the yoni, its female counterpart. But these paintings do not simply concern themselves with Hindu mythology. Rather, by using this immediately familiar yet also indefinite form, Price opens up the work, achieving a breadth of reference. Many of the works' titles are in Spanish, Todo (everything or all), Regar (to water), Boton (to bud), reflecting his time spent living in Mexico. Other titles come from traditional English terms such as Lubber, or Greek Demeter, the goddess of fertility. Common to these titles are notions of (re)production, mythology and broad referentiality, the familiar and the exotic. As these nearly monochrome works are painted-one might even say constructed-from layers of varying transparencies and opacities, so Price's referents, from the quotidian and immediate to the hermetic and erudite are assembled in a grouping at once homogenous and disparate, clastic and permeable. The work Todo, 2002, is a roughly square horizontal bronze slab incised by a circle of water. The resulting handmade quality of both the support and the channel speaks of the duality of frailty (its facture) and endurance (its material, bronze). Lift Todo Sustain (detail) Price has recently produced a portfolio of prints entitled rills and offings. The five etchings and two digital prints are accompanied by five prose texts by Rita Valencia. The portfolio, in an edition of 21 copies, is the first publication from the Demeter Press, Los Angeles. A prospectus is available. The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue with a text by Edward Albee. 11 x 8 1/2 inches, 40 pages, 25 reproductions, $25, including US postage. Copies signed by the artist and author will be available. For further information and photographs, please contact the gallery. TOP