FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

JACK PIERSON

APRIL 6 - MAY 4, 1996

Luhring Augustine Gallery is pleased to announce a solo exhibition by the artist, Jack Pierson, from April 6 through May 4.  This ensemble of work presents a sequel to the cinematic blue installation of Pierson’s last show at the gallery. 

The five large-scaled paintings, primarily rose colored, fluctuate between  a poetic meditation on the everyday and their abstraction as film cells.  In his most recent works Pierson has shifted his focus away from “parables of doomed glamour and toward a sort of pornography of joy.”  These PixMil paintings are created via a computer imaging process, whereby Pierson’s  photographs are first digitally scanned and then applied as paint on canvas.   A second room in the gallery will contain a temporary working studio for the artist, continuing his interest in the tableau as installation.

Known primarily for his photographs, drawings, installations and “word pieces” (words formed from old signage and marquee letters), Pierson’s work has been featured at the past two Whitney Biennials and the exhibition Edward Hopper & Jack Pierson: American Dreaming at the Whitney Museum of American Art.  Recently the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago mounted a one person exhibition by the artist.  Currently the Museum of Contemporary Art in Miami has illuminated the artist’s monumentally scaled PARADISE word piece as part of its inaugural exhibition.  Pierson’s most recent book, All of a Sudden, was released this past November to great success.  Richard Flood, the chief curator of the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, has described the book as “a velvety work filled with blurry mornings and sleepily beautiful boys and Vegas dreams and beach-town lassitude.” 

Luhring Augustine serves as Pierson’s primary gallery and has represented the artist since 1993.

For further information please contact Michele Maccarone at (212 219 9600).