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.

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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 ###

OSI AUDU’s solo exhibition “A Sense of Self”

Osi Audu’s latest exhibition investigates notions of the self beyond  the materiality that defines our existence

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Self Portrait after Dogon Bird Mask, 2017-2021, 54″x72″, pastel and graphite on paper mounted on canvas A Sense of Self A solo exhibition of new drawings, paintings and sculpture by OSI AUDU December 8th, 2021 – January 5th, 2022 Contact the gallery for viewing by appointment, price list, additional information and acquisition. Complimentary catalogs available upon request. (202) 628-2787 (call or text) info@mortonfineart.com Available Artwork by OSI AUDU

Self-Portrait after Head of Pangwe Figure, 2018, 22″x31″, acrylic on canvas

About A Sense of Self

Morton Fine Art is proud to present A Sense of Self, a solo exhibition of new works by Nigerian multimedia artist Osi Audu; on view from December 8, 2021 – January 5, 2022. Working across drawing, painting and sculpture, Audu considers notions of internal and external dualities, most distinctively, the Yoruba sense of “outer and inner head.” The works–geometric abstractions made alive with vibrant shades of blue, red, green, yellow and black, reflect Audu’s celebration of color as a manifestation of interior human essence. Each of the pieces in A Sense of Self are presented as self-portraits, which Audu articulates to be “the portraits of the intangible self.”

Self Portrait II, 2021, 22″x31″, pastel and graphite on paper mounted on canvas

In conversation with classical African aesthetics, Audu’s works examine the human head as an axis of material and subliminal consciousness. In this sense, the artist captures what exists prior to and beyond embodiment, the self outside of matter. Though many of his pieces are rich in color, at their core, each one is a rumination on blackness—that which is imperceivable by the human eye. In works reminiscent of scientific illustrations, Audu gives image to internal expressions of the self, investigating the mechanisms and shapes of the human spirit.

Self Portrait after Head of a Benin Queen Mother, 2021, 26″x14″x10.5″, painted steel

As studies of visceral perception, Audu’s portraits ask questions such as, what might the intangible self look like after donning a Dogon bird mask; or after wearing an Efik headdress? His answer to the former is: four sharp rectangular shapes, with a free-form waved appendage; to the latter: a gently coiled form, with two flat surfaces. To Audu, these questions are neither anomalous nor incidental. Instead, they are essential vehicles for investigating what is nestled between the layers of the mind, body and personal identity that we each understand ourselves to have.  A Sense of Self provides a deeply personal visual language for examining the complex structures of being. At once dynamic and uncomplicated, these works leave the audience with questions about themselves.

Self Portrait after an Efik Headdress, 2021, 22″x31″, pastel and graphite on paper mounted on canvas

Self Portrait with Yoruba Hairstyle, 2021, 22″x31″, pastel and graphite on paper mounted on canvas

Available artwork by OSI AUDU

About OSI AUDU

OSI AUDU received a B.A. in Fine Art with First Class Honors from the University of Ife, Ile-Ife, Nigeria, and an M.F.A. in Painting and Drawing from the University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA. He has been exhibited at, and collected by, public Institutions including the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African Art in Washington, D.C., The Newark Museum in Newark, New Jersey, USA, The British Museum and the Horniman Museum, both in London, and the Wellcome Trust Gallery in London. Audu’s work has also been exhibited at the Tobu Museum and Setagaya Museum, both in Japan, the Liverpool Museum in England, the Science Museum in London; and acquired for corporate collections including Microsoft Art Collection, Sony Classical New York and the Schmidt Bank in Germany. Audu has been represented by Morton Fine Art in Washington, D.C. since 2012.

About Morton Fine Art

Founded in 2010 in Washington, DC 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 Diaspora. Morton Fine Art founded the trademark *a pop-up project in 2010. *a pop-up project is MFA’s mobile gallery component which hosts temporary curated exhibitions nationally. Gallery hours: By appointment only. Mask required. Morton Fine Art 52 O St NW #302 Washington, DC 20001 (202) 628-2787 info@mortonfineart.com www.mortonfineart.com