“Abrasions”, a selection of recent oil paintings from Jenny Morgan is the current show at Like the Spice in Brooklyn.
Jenny Morgan paints the people she knows. The portraits are stunning in detail with paint built up in thin layers. The surfaces are then scraped and sanded, revealing underpainting and in the deepest gouges even the gesso is exposed.
The abuses that are inflicted on the canvas inspire an unusual intimacy with the subjects. Scars and blemishes that are usually overlooked in figurative painting have been imagined and emphasized. It is a strange conflict that ensues between the pain of the flesh and the comfortable attitude of the models.
In some pieces, Morgan built up the surfaces quite literally. As the skin degraded internal musculature was brought to light.
Jenny Morgan
Abrasions
9 January – 8 February 2009
Like the Spice Gallery
Brooklyn, NY
