JENNY WU | Ai Yo! | Solo Exhibition at Morton Fine Art

Morton Fine Art is pleased to announce Ai Yo!, a solo exhibition of sculpturalpaintings by artist Jenny Wu. Continuing an innovative latex paint and time-based practice theartist has been implementing for nearly a decade, Ai Yo! features Wu further exploringcomposition, color, expertise, control, chance and surprise—favoring discovery over mastery.Long interested in tactility, in-betweenness, embodiedness, and construction (Wu has abackground in architectural studies), the exhibition questions our basic assumptions about whatpaintings and sculptures can be. Wu’s first solo exhibition with the gallery, Ai Yo!, will be on viewfrom February 8 – March 8, 2023.

Visit our Website

Ai Yo! Sculptural Paintings by JENNY WU February 8th – March 8th, 2023 Opening reception 4-6pm on Saturday, February 11th, 2023. The artist will be in attendance. Please RSVP to info@mortonfineart.com. Contact the gallery for viewing by appointment, price list, additional information and acquisition. (202) 628-2787 (call or text)info@mortonfineart.com Available Artwork by JENNY WU

It’s Not Finished But I Am, 2022, 36″x24″x2.5″, latex paint and resin on wood panel

Briefly Inhabit a Fictional World, 2022, 18″x18″x2.5″, latex paint and resin on wood panel

About Ai Yo!

Underpinned by transformation and embodying time, material characteristics and chance, Wu’s sculptural paintings operate as both built objects and records (of labor, gesture, accident). Generating degrees of liminality, Wu’s body of work is an engine to multiplicity. To create each work, Wu pours thick coats of latex paint onto silicone surfaces, allowing each layer to dry completely before adding another layer of latex in turn to dry. The results are rich and vividly varied strata of dried paint, which Wu then cuts to reveal layers of colorful cross-sections, often touched by chance elements like cracking. Using these cross-sections as her base units, Wu assembles her paintings, building up relief and composition—piece by piece—on wood panels. Both the cross-sections and their eventual sculptural forms veer towards an order out of serendipity and planning. Following prearranged patterns, Wu erects pulsing grid-forms and mesmerizing reliefs of playful, shimmering paint, completed with a top coat of glossy resin to amplify her vibrant palette. Transforming latex paint from its original, liquid form—before fashioning it within new contexts and forms—the artworks acknowledge an abiding passion for the sensational and perceptual properties of materiality. 70 Year Old Intern Waiting for His First Real Job, 2022, 36″x24″x2.5″, latex paint and resin on wood panel

The Analysis is Severely Limited By My Lack of Understanding What I Am Doing, 2022, 36″x24″x2.5″, latex paint and resin on wood panel

Titles play an important role in Wu’s practice, in some cases mirroring her process of cutting and rearranging layered materials: Too Heavy to Carry to the British Museum(2022);70 Year Old Intern Waiting for His First Real Job(2022); Hello to That One Person Who Nods Along Encouragingly During Presentations(2022). Sourcing her titles from Twitter (including a number of Donald Trump’s tweets, an approach that ended in 2020), Wu’s titling compounds the humorous and constructive elements explored in Ai Yo!, the meaning of which too is both layered and specific. A regional expression in Nanjing, China, Wu’s hometown, “Ai Yo”’s meaning depends on how you say it, ranging from “impressed” to “suspicious.” Existing only as an expression, there is no character for “Ai Yo”; it can only be said and spoken. Unfixed and open, “Ai Yo” accrues yet an additional context in Wu’s selection of it as her exhibition’s title.

Hello to That One Person Who Nods Along Encouragingly During Presentations, 2022, 36″x12″x.25″, latex paint and resin on wood panel

Balancing clarity and surprise, Ai Yo! is the result of countless juxtapositions and an expanding set of contexts.

Available artwork by JENNY WU

About JENNY WU

Jenny Wu is an artist and educator. She is currently a visiting assistant professor of fine art at Trinity College in Hartford, CT. Wu’s work acknowledges the sensational and perceptual properties of materiality and then transforms the materials from their original forms and purpose to present them within new contexts. Her work has been reviewed by the Washington Post. Her work has been exhibited in galleries and museums including Katzen Museum, Huntington Museum of Art, Reece Museum, Vilnius Academy of Arts in Lithuania, and CICA Museum in South Korea. Wu has participated in numerous Artist-In-Residence programs across the country; and has been awarded fellowships from Vermont Studio Center and the Pollock Krasner Foundation. Wu was born in Nanjing, China. She holds a B.A. from William Smith College in Studio Art as well as in Architectural Studies, and an M.F.A. in Studio Art from American University. She has been represented by Morton Fine Art since 2021.

About Morton Fine Art

Founded in 2010 in Washington, DC by curator Amy Morton, Morton Fine Art (MFA) is a fine artgallery and curatorial group that collaborates with art collectors and visual artists to inspire freshways of acquiring contemporary art. Firmly committed to the belief that art collecting can becultivated through an educational stance, MFA’s mission is to provide accessibility to museum-quality contemporary art through a combination of substantive exhibitions and a welcomingplatform for dialogue and exchange of original voice. Morton Fine Art specializes in a stellarroster of nationally and internationally renowned artists as well as has an additional focus onartwork of the African and Global Diaspora. Morton Fine Art founded the trademark *a pop-up project in 2010. *a pop-up project is MFA’smobile gallery component which hosts temporary curated exhibitions nationally. Gallery hours: By appointment only. Morton Fine Art 52 O St NW #302 Washington, DC 20001 (202) 628-2787 info@mortonfineart.com www.mortonfineart.com For further information and images, please contact Amy Morton:info@mortonfineart.com ###

VICTOR EKPUK | Princeton University Art Museum | Lineage and Language

Art@Bainbridge | Victor Ekpuk: Language and Lineage

Saturday, July 22, 2023 – Sunday, October 8, 2023

The Nigerian American artist Victor Ekpuk (b. 1964) is internationally renowned for his highly expressive multimedia works of art inspired by Nsibidi, an ancient system of communication from southern Nigeria and Cameroon that features a rich ideographic script. Victor Ekpuk: Lineage and Language explores various themes that have unfolded in Ekpuk’s work over the last three decades. Using Nsibidi as well as characters borrowed from other cultures and his own vibrant systems of expression, Ekpuk celebrates the syncretism of our multicultural societies. In some instances, the artist’s drawings eloquently articulate his elaborate visual language to comment on political oppression, social issues, and police brutality. The reduced palette also gestures toward pictures that Ekpuk executed in his first occupation as a newspaper illustrator. Additionally, Lineage and Language presents the artist’s bold and dramatic series of heads, which serve as vessels for personal memory and knowledge—the beloved immaterial archives that migrants carry with them—and as living palimpsests in which cultural traditions and new life experiences overlap.  

Art@Bainbridge is made possible through the generous support of the Virginia and Bagley Wright, Class of 1946, Program Fund for Modern and Contemporary Art; the Kathleen C. Sherrerd Program Fund for American Art; Joshua R. Slocum, Class of 1998, and Sara Slocum; Rachelle Belfer Malkin, Class of 1986, and Anthony E. Malkin; Barbara and Gerald Essig; Gene Locks, Class of 1959, and Sueyun Locks; and Ivy Beth Lewis.

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Pinterest
• Google+
• Email

About Princeton University Art Museum

Available Artwork by VICTOR EKPUK

Artnet | MERON ENGIDA

Gallery Network

This Valentine’s Day, Bypass the Flowers and Chocolate in Favor of an Artwork From the Artnet Gallery Network

We’ve rounded up nine romantic and love-inspired works to help celebrate Valentine’s Day.

Artnet Gallery Network, February 14, 2023

Fernando Daza, Raspberry circle on dark red (2022). Courtesy of Soraya Cartategui Fine Art, Madrid, New York.

Finding the perfect Valentine’s Day gift can be tough. There’s the tried-and-true—a dozen roses, a box of chocolate, or maybe even a plushie—but why not surprise your significant other this year with a love-inspired work of art that will last a lifetime? We combed through hundreds of artworks on the Artnet Gallery Network and found nine love-inspired artworks that make for an incredible last-minute—yet still truly thoughtful—gift.

And if you don’t see one that quite fits the bill here, you can explore and discover the perfect piece for that special someone (or yourself!) right from home with the convenience of Artnet Gallery Network’s digital platform.

Greg Miller
Come On (2022)
Inquire for More Information

Greg Miller, Come On (2022). Courtesy of the White Room Gallery, Bridgehampton.

Veronique Cauchefer
Romance (2022)
Inquire for More Information

Veronique Cauchefer, Romance (2022). Courtesy of Helwaser Gallery, New York.

Meron Engida
Thinking of You #6 (2021)
Inquire for More Information

Meron Engida, Thinking of You #6 (2021). Courtesy of Morton Fine Art, Washington, D.C.

Available artwork by MERON ENGIDA

Interlocutor Interviews | JENNY WU | Ai Yo!

INTERLOCUTOR

Feb 14

Exhibition Feature – AI YO! by Jenny Wu

Exhibition Features, Multidisciplinary Artists

Photo by Jarrett Hendrix

Morton Fine Art is pleased to announce Ai Yo!, a solo exhibition of sculptural paintings by artist Jenny Wu. Continuing an innovative latex paint and time-based practice the artist has been implementing for nearly a decade, Ai Yo! features Wu further exploring composition, color, expertise, control, chance and surprise—favoring discovery over mastery.

Long interested in tactility, in-betweenness, embodiedness, and construction (Wu has a background in architectural studies), the exhibition questions our basic assumptions about what paintings and sculptures can be. Wu’s first solo exhibition with the gallery, Ai Yo!, will be on view through March 8, 2023 at Morton’s Washington, D.C. space (52 O St NW #302).

Photo by Jarrett Hendrix

CURATORIAL STATEMENT by Amy Morton

Engaged in an innovative hybrid sculptural painting practice, Jenny Wu is a rigorous, focused and accomplished artist with a humble nature and good sense of humor.  Her practice acknowledges—and embodies—the sensational, perceptual and temporal properties of her materials, particularly her enlivening applications of latex paint and glossy coating of resin. Having cultivated a deep material wisdom, Wu is able to transform her materials from their original forms and then crucially present them within new, engrossing formal contexts. Deeply admiring Jenny’s vision and art practice, I am thrilled to be able to continue to share this transformative body of work with Ai Yo!, Wu’s first solo exhibition with the gallery.

Briefly Inhabit a Fictional World, 2022 – Latex paint and resin on wood panel – 18 x 18 x 2.5 in.

Hello to That One Person Who Nods Along Encouragingly During Presentations, 2022 – Latex paint and resin on wood panel – 36 x 12 x 2.5 in.

ARTIST STATEMENT by Jenny Wu

I could never sit still when growing up, and my mother found an alternative method to make me sit still—classical art lessons. These childhood lessons  built a foundation  that has led to my current cross-disciplinary practice in painting, sculpture, installation, video, and participatory projects. My work acknowledges the sensational and perceptual properties of materiality and then transforms the materials, from their original forms and purpose, to present them within new contexts. 

My current sculptural paintings transform liquid paint into sculpture, a process derived from making oil on canvas paintings and discovering the many layers of oil paint beneath the surface. Those layers of oil paint embody linear time, repetitive processes, and material characteristics. Now, I exemplify the layering by pouring a thick coat of latex paint one color at a time on a silicone surface, letting each color dry completely, and repeating the process many times. The colors of each layer are premeditated. I later cut the dried paint to reveal the layers of cross-section, which I then use to assemble sculpturally on a flat surface. The cross-section juxtaposes order and chaos: the consistent order of paint from old to new, and the imperfection of subtle differences in thicknesses. Each piece follows a specific pattern, uniting the differences to present a systematic imagery. Resin coating is added later on to amplify the colors, as well as to protect the paint. These works question our basic assumptions about what we consider paintings can be and what sculptures can be.

The Analysis is Severely Limited By My Lack of Understanding of What I am Doing, 2022 – Latex paint and resin on wood panel – 36 x 24 x 2.5 in.

Have Not Overthrown a Government Since 1954, 2022 -Latex paint and resin on wood panel – 36 x 24 x 2.5 in. 

Ai Yo!, will be on view through March 8, 2023 at Morton’s Washington, D.C. space (52 O St NW #302).

Check out our coverage of other current and recent art exhibitions

All images courtesy Morton Fine Art and the artist

Available artwork by JENNY WU

JENNY WU | Morton Fine Art | See Great Art

ART IN THE NORTHEAST FEMALE ARTISTS

Jenny Wu art exhibition at Morton Fine Art D.C.

BY CHADD SCOTT POSTED ON FEBRUARY 8, 20230 COMMENTS

Jenny Wu headshot. Courtesy Morton Fine Art and the artist.

Morton Fine Art presents “Ai Yo!,” a solo exhibition of sculptural paintings by artist Jenny Wu. Continuing an innovative latex paint and time-based practice the artist has been implementing for nearly a decade, “Ai Yo!” features Wu further exploring composition, color, expertise, control, chance and surprise—favoring discovery over mastery. Long interested in tactility, in-betweenness, embodiedness, and construction (Wu has a background in architectural studies), the Jenny Wu art exhibition questions our basic assumptions about what paintings and sculptures can be. Wu’s first solo exhibition with the gallery, “Ai Yo!,” will be on view from February 8 – March 8, 2023 at Morton’s Washington, D.C. space (52 O St NW #302).

Underpinned by transformation and embodying time, material characteristics and chance, Wu’s sculptural paintings operate as both built objects and records (of labor, gesture, accident). Generating degrees of liminality, Wu’s body of work is an engine to multiplicity. To create each work, Wu pours thick coats of latex paint onto silicone surfaces, allowing each layer to dry completely before adding another layer of latex in turn to dry. The results are rich and vividly varied strata of dried paint, which Wu then cuts to reveal layers of colorful cross-sections, often touched by chance elements like cracking.

Using these cross-sections as her base units, Wu assembles her paintings, building up relief and composition—piece by piece—on wood panels. Both the cross-sections and their eventual sculptural forms veer towards an order out of serendipity and planning. Following prearranged patterns, Wu erects pulsing grid-forms and mesmerizing reliefs of playful, shimmering paint, completed with a top coat of glossy resin to amplify her vibrant palette. Transforming latex paint from its original, liquid form—before fashioning it within new contexts and forms—the artworks acknowledge an abiding passion for the sensational and perceptual properties of materiality.

Titles play an important role in Wu’s practice, in some cases mirroring her process of cutting and rearranging layered materials: Too Heavy to Carry to the British Museum (2022); 70 Year Old Intern Waiting for His First Real Job (2022); Hello to That One Person Who Nods Along Encouragingly During Presentations (2022). Sourcing her titles from Twitter (including a number of Donald Trump’s tweets, an approach that ended in 2020), Wu’s titling compounds the humorous and constructive elements explored in “AiYo!,” the meaning of which too is both layered and specific.

A regional expression in Nanjing, China, Wu’s hometown, “Ai Yo”’s meaning depends on how you say it, ranging from “impressed” to “suspicious.” Existing only as an expression, there is no character for “Ai Yo;” it can only be said and spoken. Unfixed and open, “AiYo” accrues yet an additional context in Wu’s selection of it as her exhibition’s title. Balancing clarity and surprise, “Ai Yo!” is the result of countless juxtapositions and an expanding set of contexts.

About the Artist

Jenny Wu is an artist and educator. She is currently a visiting assistant professor of fine art at Trinity College in Hartford, CT. Wu’s work acknowledges the sensational and perceptual properties of materiality and then transforms the materials from their original forms and purpose to present them within new contexts.

About Morton Fine Art

Founded in 2010 in Washington D.C. by curator Amy Morton, Morton Fine Art (MFA) is a fine art gallery and curatorial group that collaborates with art collectors and visual artists to inspire fresh ways of acquiring contemporary art. Firmly committed to the belief that art collecting can be cultivated through an educational stance, MFA’s mission is to provide accessibility to museum-quality contemporary art through a combination of substantive exhibitions and a welcoming platform for dialogue and exchange of original voice.

Morton Fine Art specializes in a stellar roster of nationally and internationally renowned artists as well as has an additional focus on artwork of the African and Global Diaspora.

Available Artwork by JENNY WU

JENNY WU | Ai Yo! | Washington City Paper

Ongoing: Jenny Wu’s Ai Yo! at Morton Fine Art Gallery

Is it architecture? Or painting? Perhaps some tapestry of the two? And does genre even matter? What is this instinct to sort, to categorize? Is it intrinsically human, or an invented construction? These are some of the many questions prompted by Jenny Wu’s colorful and layered pieces, on view this month at Morton Fine Art. Wu’s collection, titled Ai Yo!, is both a celebration of multiplicities and a reflection of liminality. Like many artists, Wu begins with a wood panel canvas and paint. But she immediately diverges. Like a pastry chef or chocolatier, Wu pours liquid latex paint into silicone molds repeatedly over extended periods of time until she’s built her own new kinds of ‘paint chips.’ She splices them together with her precise, yet whimsical hand, to reveal brilliantly colored miniature confections, each barring their own signature markings. She then assembles these to create her cheekily titled works (yet another invitation for complexity), such as “Hello to That One Person Who Nods Along Encouragingly During Presentations” or “Spent $50.4 Million on TV Ads to Brag About Giving Local Businesses A Total of $100,000.” In one piece, titled “Too Heavy to Carry to the British Museum,” hot pink and tangerine strips (think sour rainbow candies) stacked like books leave enough negative space for the glossy yellow underlayer to shine through. And in another joyful, defiant, complicated piece, lavender, turquoise, and bubblegum paint layers fit snugly next to each other, like sugar-high kids on a Friday night sleepover. When you step back, the interplaying modules evoke a well-loved floor rug, or a cross section of some distant technicolor planet’s malted core. Another title Wu selected reads: “It’s Not Finished But I Am.” The exhibit is on view through March 8 at Morton Fine Art Gallery, 52 O St. NW, #302. mortonfineart.com. Free, by appointment. —Emma Francois

Jenny Wu’s “It’s Not Finished But I Am,” 2022; latex paint and resin on wood panel, 36 x 24 x 2.5 in. Courtesy Morton Fine Art and the artist

Available Artwork by JENNY WU

LISA MYERS BULMASH | Interlocutor Interviews

The symbolic languages of LISA MYERS BULMASH

Visual Artists, Multidisciplinary Artists

Seattle-based artist Lisa Myers Bulmash creates collages, assemblages, and altered books focusing on African American and female experiences. She writes that her works aim “to expand the classical practice of using an individual narrative to illuminate the general human condition. My hope is that my symbolic language creates a much-needed magic for the viewer — especially those who experience a daily sense of erasure or isolation.”

She is currently showing work from her “Not Geo” series at Morton Fine Art’s group exhibition Creating a New Whole, up through February 4, 2023.

Interview by Interlocutor Magazine

What initially attracted you to the art form of altered books? Was there a particular exhibit or artist working in the medium that catalyzed you to begin experimenting with it?

Being a longtime bookworm, I think my attraction sprang from a horrified fascination. Here was an object I’d been taught to treat with care, almost reverence – but someone had cut right through the cover! Pages were missing and rearranged! Then I realized the book was still telling a story but speaking in a different way.

What types of books do you focus on for alterations and why?

Sometimes I’m actually judging a book by its cover: does it have an interesting texture, design, or a title that catches my eye? They’re always hardcover books, usually smaller than the average coffee table book but larger than a paperback. The book needs to be sturdy enough to support whatever lightweight, three-dimensional objects I add to it, plus the hanging hardware on the back. (Most of my altered books are wall-mounted.) I also look for books that are no longer under copyright, just in case I salvage one of its illustrations or text for another project.

There Is No White Without Black – Altered book diptych (pair) – Free-standing objet d’art, 7.75 x 21.5 x 1.75 inches – Hand-carved niches; covers and text block (pages) sealed closed

Could you talk about your typical methods of book alteration and what elements of the book itself you often focus on to change? Does the book’s text directly come into play within the work (i.e., do you directly reassemble any textual elements)?

First, I flip through the book to see if there are any pages I want to cut out and save. Then I seal part or all of the page block. I use a utility knife to cut a hole in the front cover. Then I cut into the page block, using my fingers to tear a rough niche down into the page block. The niche acts as a focusing device for the image or images I insert into the book.

It’s actually pretty rare for me to reassemble the textual elements of the original book into the resulting artwork, unless there’s a chapter title or phrase that stands out for some reason. I once altered a copy of Robinson Crusoe, thinking that the adventure story associations would make interesting commentary on an image of two little Black boys in the hand-torn niche. The kids would hover just behind a chapter title of “I have a terrible dream.”

The thing is, when you’re working with material this old (the novel was first published in 1719), there’s bound to be some casual racism and colonialism in the text. I pulled out text that read, “he set my foot upon his head,” a clear description of Friday’s submission to Crusoe. Added to the “terrible dream” text and the Black boys, the piece then became about anti-Black violence.

Bought & Paid For #1-triptych (trio) of altered books, mounted upon antique washboards – Hand-torn niches framed with rope – 24 x 13 x 2 inches

You’ve written, “as a visual artist, I am obsessed with joining elements that seem to have no relationship to each other.” What do you think the origins of this obsession are, and what do you believe is the most potent aspect of joining disparate elements?

The cognitive clash between two unrelated elements is exciting and often amusing – when a potential combination makes me cackle with delight, I know I’m onto something worth exploring. I couldn’t say exactly what the origins of the obsession are. But I believe the most potent aspect of joining disparate elements, as you say, is the feeling that I’ve manipulated the materials in a way that compels them to give up some sort of hidden meaning or potential.

TODAY, America. Today. Collage on hardback book cover – Wall-hanging objet d’art – 16.5 x 18.5 x 1.5 inches

The Mountain – Original collage on Fabriano Artistico watercolor paper – 100% cotton paper: hot-pressed (smooth surface) and acid-free – 12 x 9 inches unframed

You are a part of the group show Creating a New Whole at Morton Fine Art, where works from your “Not Geo” series are offered. Could you discuss this series and how it aims to subvert National Geographic’s problematic depictions of Africans and non-Western people?

As humans, we still have a tendency to think if something’s written down (and illustrated, bound into a magazine and delivered to our doorstep), then it must be at least partly true. I think that holds true in virtual spaces too, even though an algorithm is producing content tailored to our own biases and interests.

The “Not Geo” series pushes back against taking things at face value, and the kind of categorization that harms Black people and others of color. The old illustrations were meant to be pseudo-scientific depictions of human “types” separated by racial boundaries. It indicates a certain inflexibility of thought, a hardness matched by the harshness that people of African descent have often had to endure. I wanted to counter that with the delicacy of lace paper and irregular patterns in marbled paper. It’s my way of supporting the radical notion that Black people, especially women, should be treated with justice, empathy, and a certain softness that the world rarely extends to us.

Not Geo – Girl, 2022, ink, hand-marbled and rice paper collage on watercolor paper, 12 x 9 in

Not Geo – Woman, 2022, ink, hand-marbled and rice paper collage on watercolor paper, 12 x 9 in

Not Geo – Crossed Arms, 2022, ink, hand-marbled and rice paper collage on watercolor paper, 12 x 9 in