Mark Jenkins Family Room at VOLTA NY Art Fair March 3 - 6 2011

Carmichael Gallery invites you to Family Room a solo exhibition of new work by Mark Jenkins at the VOLTA NY art fair in New York City, March 3-6, 2011. Booth A1 7 West 34th Street between 5th and 6th Avenue / 11th floor New York, NY 10001 USA You must RSVP to rsvp at carmichaelgallery dot com by Sunday, February 27, 2011. Mark Jenkins' installation at VOLTA NY will transform Booth A1 into an unconventionally furnished family room. "I've been doing a lot of experimentation with resin and fiberglass," says the artist of this new series, which includes five and a half life-size sculptures and a range of smaller pieces, "finding more original ways to make hand casts and improving structural solidity through new bracing techniques." For the first time, Jenkins will present his works within a site-specific environment purposefully created to provide greater contextual authority and definition to his aesthetic and thematic considerations. "An empty space can feel sterile," he observes, "as if a giant eraser has removed all context. The works become more like pinned butterflies. I have taken a different approach with (the presentation of) Family Room. This time it's about creating a place for the sculptures to live in, so, in addition to clothes, I've been thrift store shopping for plants, drapes, rugs and chairs." Both individual works and the installation as a whole will propose non-traditional commentaries on the institutions of family and home. Mark Jenkins (b. 1973 Washington, DC, USA) Mark Jenkins is an internationally acclaimed American artist and one of the most unique mixed media sculptors working today. His enigmatic brand of hyper realistic conceptualism is playful, innovative and thought-provoking, making him a very important figure in the history of contemporary sculpture and installation art. By placing his works in institutional, urban and environmental settings, he brings cities, landscapes and interiors to life in a new way, transforming the ordinary into the unexpected. Jenkins' process involves dry-casting everything from fire hydrants and toy ducks to baby dolls and people, often himself or his assistants, with box sealing tape, the latter often dressed to appear scarily life-like. When placed outside or slipped indoors, announced or otherwise, these sculptures have the ability to both camouflage into their surroundings and elicit spectacular amounts of attention from viewers. Jenkins has exhibited his work in solo and group exhibitions in galleries, museums, festivals, art fairs and other cultural institutions throughout the world, including Los Angeles, New York, Belgrade, Vienna, Washington D.C., London, Barcelona, Malmo, Moscow, Tokyo and Seoul. Whether indoors or out, his work engages its viewers and provokes a complex examination of self and surroundings. About Carmichael Gallery: Founded in 2007 by husband and wife team Seth and Elisa Carmichael, Carmichael Gallery focuses on a select group of artists breaking ground in painting, mixed media, photography and sculpture. Their annual program consists of a series of solo and group exhibitions that document the progress of these artists. For information on current, past and upcoming shows, visit www.carmichaelgallery.com For additional information and press materials on this show, please contact the gallery at art at carmichaelgallery dot com and +1 323 939 0600. About VOLTA NY: VOLTA NY is an invitational show of solo artists' projects and is the American incarnation of the successful young fair founded in Basel in 2005. VOLTA NY was conceived by art critic and fair director Amanda Coulson to continue the original mandate of a tightly-focused, boutique event that is a place for discovery. Both Basel and New York fairs provide a showcase for current art production and relevant contemporary positions regardless of the artist or gallery's age. By putting the focus back on artists through exclusively featuring solo projects, VOLTA NY promotes a deep exploration of the work of its selected projects, an opportunity for discoveries that move beyond those afforded by a traditional art fair. While many fairs provide a broader overview, with more represented artists in each booth, visitors to VOLTA NY compare the experience to a more focused series of intense studio visits. A platform for challenging, often complimentary, sometimes competing ideas about contemporary art, the strictly solo format is what gives the New York fair its unique character.