Optic Nerve Review at Modern Contemporary Museum of Art, Miami. August 2010
By Annie Hollingsworth
http://www.artlurker.com/2010/08/optic-nerve-xii-at-moca/
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ARTLURKER.COM 20 20 Gallery SHOW "New Works" http://www.artlurker.com/
Jillian Mayer’s pieces include some exquisitely fragile Papier Mache masks and clocks that depict animals (in the case of the bear and deer heads) as powerful and soulful fellow creatures that mock the degrading sentimental images of animals that so often appear in mainstream culture. She mentions accessibility and humble materials as aesthetic goals and considers animals real - in other words ‘they don’t bullshit’.
The fragility and anti-archival materials similarly defy the idea that the object has intrinsic value except as a humble vehicle to an aesthetic experience that may have a greater value. Actually these objects are kind of ratty, but their aesthetic power, (especially the Papier Mache heads) suggest this artist has retained a certain creative power that most lose by age 9. They generate a sense of empathy and understanding, arguably art’s primary purpose, and remind us that putting the price tag first really is like putting the cart before the horse.
-----------------------------------------David Rohn www.davidrohn.net
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The Miami-based artist, Jillian Mayer, offers last-ditch respite from the scary cat-holics and “cute overload” fiends roaming today’s interwebs. The animals that populate her faux-trash, found-fabric collages are presented in states of unsettling ambivalence and docility, whether facing absurd calamity or an absurd role in the Floridian tourist complex. In an IRL world where humankind is on an accelerated track to certain doom, Mayer’s works are notable for not acknowledging its footprint whatsoever. When we’re gone, it seems, obese pachyderms will simply replace the 305’s loitering Jewish grandmothers; squirrels will lie and imbibe, and dull rooster couples will tolerate a Godless existence. The more you know…
- Hunter Stephenson, 2008
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EL HERALD/ MIAMI HERALD
Sunday January 20th, 2008
Routes of the art.
Exhibition the Frost Museum, Miami, Florida.
ADRIANA HERRERA
The sewn works of Jillian Mayer carry a crafty sense of humor.
Pulling from television images, cartoon friends, and sticker sheets,
Mayers narratives can be interpreted superficially or dissected into
more serious themes. In Whale Departure, glitter and beads may
distract ones imagination, but the acute reference to these fabled
creatures whom are now, in Mayer's piece, at the despense of humans,
contrasts her happy creation .
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Analog / Digital
curator Gustavo Oviedo www.131projects.com
20 Artists have been invited to participate in this
study where old and new technologies merge their influences in today’s society:
Raymond Adrian, Bopsy, Christine Brache, Christina Felisgrau, Gary Fonseca
Juan Griego, Sinisa Kukec, Marlene Lopez, Ralph Manresa, Nicole Martinez, Jillian Mayer, Brandon Opalka, Gustavo Oviedo, Ricky Rayns, Ronnie Rivera, Johnny Robles
Adam Rush, Agustin Salas, Stephan Tugrul, Neranjan Venom
Humans experience the world analogically but it is
said we live in a “digital world…" –while digital
enthusiasts advocate progress and continuously find
solutions of binary efficiency, the analog-analytical
opposition claims we are only creating new problems...
The world of Jillian Mayer juxtaposes visual metaphors
of animals as humans allowing viewers to evaluate the
‘accepted, ridiculous and undeniable truths of our
culture’. Her choice of materials like ‘papier mâché’
and tempera paints evoke early remembrances of
childhood days of art class.
Supported by Grolsch Opening reception: Friday, June 6th, 2008
1st & 21 Gallery. 2045 NW 1st Avenue. Miami,
FL 33127.Dates: From June 6th through June 14th, 2008
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SUNPOST
A more compact group exhibition is No Need to Touch, on view at ArtCenter/South Florida through June 24. Organized by Renee Cagnina, this show benefits from a sufficiently flexible curatorial conception that focuses on the properties of fiber. Cagnina appeared open to suggestion from enough artists hailing from different parts of the galaxy to keep it interesting. With “Carpet Study #1,” Kerry Phillips provides a concentrated wallop, layering pieces of carpet to fashion a mound that appears to have erupted from the gallery floor. Jillian Mayer’s artfully homely collages capitalize on sentimentality, and Natasha Duwin’s embroidered abstractions have a sort of lazy formalism. Both young artists have sufficient space and time ahead of them to produce more vibrant work. The high point of the exhibition is incontestably “Nine,” by artist team Guerra de la Paz. Semi-hidden under a giant Afro/nuclear mushroom cloud of exuberantly patterned items of clothing are the legs of nine mannequins, each sporting distinctive ’70s-era footwear — to marvelous effect. The tableaux created by these two artists are always inventive. The structural ingenuity of their works, which exhaust the possibility of discarded clothing as a sculptural medium, is matched by their work’s tremendous capacity for outrageous storytelling. Cagnina, the new director of exhibitions and artist services at ArtCenter, is to be congratulated on a sensitive arrangement of work from just-graduated MFA students with mature artists on more solid footing.
No Need to Touch is on view through Sunday, June 24 at Art Center/South Florida, 924 Lincoln Road, Miami Beach; 305-674-8278; www.artcentersf.org.
Michelle Weinberg
