AMY CASEY "Uncertain Times" New Paintings September 10, 2009

Artist Reception: Friday, September 11th, 5:30 – 7:30pm

Preview Amy Casey’s New Works: www.zggallery.com/casey.htm

Amy Casey’s paintings of crumbling infrastructure, over-development, and subsequent neglect of the urban landscape are not simply a comment on the current economy. Amy’s meticulously detailed acrylic paintings on paper have been inspired by a reoccurring end of the world dream she’s been having for the last ten years. Earlier work depicted the aftermath of an unnamed, but widespread catastrophe. In these previous paintings, the city, utterly devoid of humans, is re-populated with small, two-headed mutant, woodland creatures and increasingly ominous plant growths, intent on reclaiming the landscape for themselves; a sort of flora versus fauna, winner takes all scenario.

The narrative through-line of the current work in “Uncertain Times,” could be viewed as perhaps pre-apocalyptic. Although the cityscape remains desolate and seemingly un-peopled, the houses, factories and buildings have become personified and are given a fighting chance to avoid impending disaster. They seemed to have devised bizarre strategies of stilting and stacking on top of each other, or tying themselves together and lashing themselves to telephone poles to rise above the destruction. Entire neighborhoods are flying on high wires, swinging through the air, precariously webbed together for better or worse.

Amy’s use of acrylic paint (as opposed to gouache or watercolor) on paper, results in highly detailed surfaces in which every brick and roof shingle is richly delineated and minutely rendered. The blank white areas of the page are as much a compositional force, as the piles of accumulated detritus and wreckage of the positive spaces. There is a whimsy and absurdity, and even a glimmer of hope for the future at the heart of this cautionary tale, that softens the tone of doom and gloom. Who knows, if we take heed of Amy’s message, maybe the “uncertain” element in “Uncertain Times” could turn out either way.

Amy Casey received her B.F.A. from the Cleveland Institute of Art., Ohio. She is this year’s recipient of the Cleveland Arts Prize, Emerging Artist Award and a 2009 Creative Workforce Fellowship. Casey’s paintings have been included in singer Neko Case’s recent album “Middle Cyclone“ and has been exhibited in Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and most recently at the Museum on Contemporary Art, Cleveland. This will be Amy Casey’s second solo show with ZG Gallery, Chicago.

Exhibition Book Available for $35.

Official Website: http://www.zggallery.com/current.htm