Jennifer Bornstein – Presented for the first time in Scandinavia

Solo exhibition
Main hall, Färgfabriken

Curator Elisabeth Haitto Ahrén

Jennifer Bornstein belongs to a new generation of artists who are rapidly establishing themselves on the international art scene. Her work is now presented for the first time in Scandinavia with an exhibition at Färgfabriken.

Jennifer Bornstein works with film, photo and etchings and Färgfabriken, with Elisabeth Haitto Ahrén as guest curator, has chosen to show three films and a number of etchings. The theme running through the exhibition is of peacefully engaging poetry that leaves the door open for the beholder’s own interpretations.

At the exhibition Jennifer will be showing her 16 mm film Untitled (2009) for the first time. Later in the Spring the film will be shown at Gavin Brown’s enterprise in New York. Färgfabriken is a joint producer of “Untitled” which is filmed in black & white and in which the artist approaches an almost abstract imagery.

Celestial Spectacular (2002) 16 mm film, consists of a series of brief, independent filmed observations. Are they really documentary scenes? Or has Jennifer made the objects that appear in the film herself? We glimpse sensual landscapes and a bright sun crosses the firmament while meteors descend or plants speak to each other. The film “What it Was” (2000) – also in 16 mm format – is an everyday scene with a twist.

Etching may be an ancient technique but Jennifer Bornstein enjoys working in this medium, choosing as her subjects anything that is found in her immediate surroundings and everything that goes on there. The subject may be a friend tying the laces of her sneakers or a study of a film projector or a female friend in the shower.

Jennifer Bornstein’s work occupies a position right at the dividing line between private and public.

Besides her work as a visual artist, Jennifer Bornstein is also an author and has written a book entitled “How to ride the bus” (Four Corner Books, London, 2007), which is a guide to New York with a difference; explaining how one can get around in New York by bus. She has also been guest curator at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles where she made her own selection of works from the Grunwald Collection for an exhibition in 2008.

Jennifer Bornstein was born in 1970 in Seattle and is currently based in Los Angeles. She graduated from UC Berkeley in 1992 and gained an MFA at UCLA in 1996. She also attended the Whitney Program in 1996/97. Jennifer Bornstein is represented by the greengrassi gallery in London, Gavin Brown’s enterprise in New York and Blum & Poe in Los Angeles.