FERNANDO RENES: HAVEMEYER STREET ANIMATIONS

14 MARCH THROUGH 3 MAY, 2008

Jeannie Freilich Contemporary (formerly Jeannie Freilich Fine Art) is pleased to announce the opening of our new and expanded space in Chelsea. Our inaugural exhibition in the new premises presents the work of Spanish born artist Fernando Renes (b.1970 Covarrubias, (Burgos) Spain). The show titled, Havemeyer Street Animations, includes two new animations as well as hundreds of related drawings. A 208 page hardcover artist's book with reproductions of 125 new drawings by Renes and edited by Octavio Zaya will be available. This show is made possible with the support of the Consulate General of Spain in New York. Please join us at a reception for the artist on 14 March from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.

In Omnivorous Romance, the video projection which forms the crux of his exhibition Havemeyer Street Animations, Fernando Renes has created a world where metamorphosis is paramount. Renes has defined his project as an attempt to “show a truth” – unedited, not previously shown,” and employs form to accomplish this task. In video projection, drawing is seen “in time” and Renes uses this aspect of the medium to change air into water, deconstruct a mountain range into abstract forms, and generate a dreamscape from the artist's own weighty, undulating belly.

Composed from 7,000 drawings in ink and watercolour, Omnivorous Romance initially appears innocent and spontaneous. But, the projection belies its own complex nature and, at certain points, takes on striking allusions: an intimate gathering of characters and toys is “bombed” by pitiless airplanes, and in another scene, floating heads leave fiery destruction in their wake. As Renes says, “For me, the deeper story is just as important as the form.”

A second, smaller work entitled Fujinokisha (literally, the steam of Fuji) is created from only 15 drawings that describe a train encircling a mountain. The repetitive action becomes an almost shaman-like incantation to yoke together art and the mundane – sugar cubes, salt showers, and the artist’s own hand. Renes illustrates how an economy of drawing generates endless possibilities.

The display of the artist’s drawings in the following galleries allows for closer inspection of Renes’s idiosyncratic gesture. Baudelaire once described the greatest drawing as “depicting another nature, one which reflects the mind and temperament of the artist.” This is what we see on display in Havemeyer Street Animations, a title that is not just topological, but also imaginative; it evokes the artist’s neighborhood as well as the space of the artist’s mind.

“Omnivorous Romance” features an original score by composer Thomas Arsenault. Arsenault is a recent graduate of the TIMARA program at Oberlin Conservatory, as well as a member of the Shinkoyo art and music collective, and has composed numerous multimedia works, including a recent opera, “For Love of God.”

Gallery hours are Monday through Saturday 10 am to 6 pm. Please call Rebecca Adib for checklist or further information.