Jack Kenna
How Slowly Time Passes, How Quickly Things Change
Jack Kenna
How Slowly Time Passes, How Quickly Things Change
Jack Kenna’s practice is defined by an energetic visual style where he reflects the dynamic nature of our media saturated world. His index of imagery is expansive, derived not only from published sources but also from personal experience, giving him the freedom to merge historical still life painting with his own vast archive of cell phone photography and imagery. This breadth of reference allows him to create works that convert the paradoxes inherent in the contemporary experience.
The title of the exhibition, How Slowly Time Passes, How Quickly Things Change, offers a reflection on the slipperiness and contradictory nature of time as represented through objects that demarcate its passage: calendars, candles, flowers, clocks, even a hot cup of coffee cooling down. The title also relates to how time can be tracked through the relentless “advancements” of technology, represented by obsolete iPhones, dated electronics, and the knobs and dials of 1970s modular synthesizers. The works also reveal themes and symbols that speak to a particular mode of post-pandemic experience, largely dictated by digital interactions with the world. On their own, power strips, cords, and cables are seemingly common objects used to maintain function in work and life. Here, exaggerated and oversized, tapped with a maximum of electrical plugs with tangled cables extending in all directions, they activate the canvas and suggest a state of being over-worked, over-stimulated, and out of time.
For a list of available works, please contact the gallery at info@equinoxgallery.com
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Jack Kenna
A multifaceted artist, Jack Kenna learned the aesthetics and techniques of stained glass from his mother, an accomplished artist in this realm. Drawing from his repeated experience of moving houses and studios over the years, Kenna has inadvertently collected dozens of plastic milk crates, using them for storage as well as makeshift DIY furniture. And now, these versatile objects serve as the basis for his art objects, accruing even greater value and purpose. The artist removes one side of each milk crate, refitting it with stained glass compositions that combine elements of Minimalism, Op art, and hard-edge abstraction in their design. Some sculptures are stacked into columns, others are randomly placed on the floor, while still others are lit from behind suggesting illuminated church windows or light boxes used in contemporary advertising (and subsequently in photography). By manipulating and combining such paradoxical materials, Kenna’s sculptures embody strength and fragility in surprising, witty, and elegant ways.
For a list of available works, please contact the gallery at info@equinoxgallery.com
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Special Project
future relics of our time
Special Project
future relics of our time
Equinox Gallery is pleased to present future relics of our time, an exhibition of ceramic works by Serisa Fitz-James, Jack Kenna, and Isabel Wynn, curated by Andrea Valentine-Lewis. During the Middle Ages, objects associated with holy people and sites were deeply celebrated. Due to their association with saints or with heaven itself, relics, such as bits of hair or body parts, were considered divine. Because the term relic derives from the Latin word relinquere, meaning “that which is left behind,” these objects have become temporal markers for future generations. Reflecting on the material and affective dimensions of Medieval relics, one might wonder, what would constitute a future relic representative of our present time.
CLICK HERE to read essay by curator, Andrea Valentine-Lewis.
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Jack Kenna, Outside the Outside, 2023
Jack Kenna, Outside the Outside, 2023
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Jack Kenna, Flower = Happy, 2023
Jack Kenna, Silverwood’s (Breeze Block III), 2022
Jack Kenna, Silverwood’s (Breeze Block III), 2022
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Jack Kenna, Scholle Corp. (Whitney I), 2022
Jack Kenna, Scholle Corp. (Whitney I), 2022
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Jack Kenna, Pretty Machine 3, 2022
Jack Kenna, Time Keeps on Slipping, 2021
Jack Kenna, Time Keeps on Slipping, 2021
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Jack Kenna, Snuff (Orange on Orange), 2022
Jack Kenna, Snuff (Orange on Orange), 2022
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