PRESS RELEASE:
We Are Animal: New Work by Jessica Teckemeyer
Opening Reception: Saturday, April 9, 2011-6pm-9pm
Show Runs: April 9 - May 22
The work of Jessica Teckemeyer immerses the viewer in physical spaces enriched by the interplay between fantasy and reality. Her art, through a variety of different mediums, explores how human understanding of the physical and psychological are informed by a myriad of experiences from the mythological to the mundane. Jessica mines history to extract iconography that can inform contemporary issues, creating a more universal narrative for the viewer, imbuing her work with a symbolic language that explores inner confrontation, spirituality, vulnerability, strength and death.
We Are Animal deals primarily with a false sense of control over internal and external influences. The human condition may be domesticated but deep down we are animals. By focusing on allusions to fierceness, monstrosity, and mutation the work creates a place "where instinct and reason are indiscernible." The existence of moral dilemma in her sculptures "relates to the contemporary self, allowing the viewer to contemplate the notion of contradictions in the mind." Teckemeyer's use of materials has a pronounced physicality; sensual and lush confronting the audience with a fascinating paradox of attraction and repulsion.
Jessica Teckemeyer recently completed her Masters of Fine Arts degree at the University of Minnesota and has received numerous student awards. She has already exhibited nationally and internationally though this will be her first solo exhibition in the Twin Cities.
