Exhibition · Anat Ebgi · Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES—Anat Ebgi is pleased to present new oil paintings by New York-based artist Jenny Morgan. The exhibition entitled Hours at the Edge is Morgan’s second solo exhibition with the gallery and debut presentation in Los Angeles. On view at 6150 Wilshire Blvd from November 13 – January 16. An opening reception will be held on Friday, November 13, from 6-8 pm. In Hours at the Edge, Jenny Morgan depicts women and, for the first time, birds of prey, their forms ebbing in and out of focus against atmospheric fields of color. Produced over the past two years, the exhibition extends Morgan’s longstanding investigation of portraiture and the relationship between artist and muse. Working with models whose likenesses she has returned to over many years, Morgan renders figures that seem to exist at the edge of reality, moving between precise realism and diaphanous abstraction; her paintings examine the relationship between the body and consciousness. In The Connector, a falcon’s outstretched wings envelop a partially obscured human face, while another painting depicts an owl whose eyes contain traces of human reflection. In preparation for the exhibition, Morgan made several visits to a falconry in Upstate New York, observing the birds’ behavior and studying their anatomy at close range. For Morgan, painting is a means of getting to know her subjects, a process of sustained observation through which the atmosphere of each image is molded to its form. Faces emerge from dense fields of fur, folds of fabric, and wispy vapors, while fragmented forms resembling broken masks or statuary float in abstract space. Throughout the exhibition, Morgan draws correspondences between different materials and organisms: hair merges with flame, foliage resembles feathers, and wood assumes the appearance of water. These transformations suggest a continuity between human, animal, and other natural forms, complicating the boundaries that ordinarily distinguish them. Working with a restricted…