Jenny Weiner - You Are Here

Jenny Weiner - You Are Here

12 March, 2009
by: Chrisg

London Exhibitions

This is my first visit to bearspace, on Deptford High Street and I'm here for the opening night of the new Jenny Weiner exhibition, You Are Here.

My first impression of the gallery is upbeat. It's a perfectly shaped small white cube; everything appears organised and immaculately presented, right down to the wine glasses and bottles, uniformly lined up in the foyer.

The exhibition work immediately strikes me as both colourful and interesting. It consists of geometrical shapes of vibrant colours covered in pencil marks consisting of lines, numbers and words such as 'you are here' and 'stepped up planes'. It seems like a cross between artwork and an architectural plan.

The majority of the exhibition revolves around the analysis of historical paintings. The work that stands out for me is called Separating Cezanne's Planes: it's based on Cezanne's La Montagne Saint Victoire and I think it's a good representation of the exhibition as a whole. The accompanying summary explains the analysis as being an attempt to 'study Cezanne's overlapping planes by a measure of separation'. This phrase is a little bit technical but then the exhibition has got a mathematical edge to it; an edge reflected by the architectural-style pencil marks covering the work. Nothing though, can detract from the pulsating colours that fill the piece; the simple geometric shapes are made up of just four colours – yellow, green, purple and red – but they are vibrant, and perfectly offset the mathematical minefield of the pencil marks. The work is very pleasing to the eye and really good fun.

I'm lucky enough to have the opportunity to talk to the artist; I listen keenly as Jenny explains that her family has a background in engineering (that probably helps explain the exhibition's mathematical angle) and that she has recently completed her postgraduate studies; importantly, she uses the word 'fun' to describe her work, which is my initial sentiment and the memory that I will take away from the exhibition.

I really enjoy this exhibition. The work's light-hearted, the wine's good and the people are nice; I become slightly baffled by the mathematical edge as the evening wears on but that's probably my fault for having too much red wine; I should learn never to drink on the job!

Chris Guillochon has an art blog documenting his experiences entering the art world.

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Chrisg