Like No One's Watching
SITUATIONS By Jill Brantley
Opening Reception: Friday November 4, 6-8:30pm
Jill Brantley's show SITUATIONS stays true to her focus on the narrative - playfully revealing experiences that make us question real life and the world of fantasy. Brantley encourages viewers to be imaginative about...the SITUATIONS she presents. A Spider anticipating a meal in Lying In Wait, a woman and her dog blissfully dancing unaware of viewers in Like No One’s Watching. In Dad’s Home, escaped caged birds provide jovial entertainment for the other pets in the house. In The Suitor a gentleman looks as if he’s longing for an overnight stay. What is really going on in these SITUATIONS? That is the crux of this show. Brantley’s assemblages with paint, paper, fabric and found objects conjure generational memories such as shag rugs, plastic covered seat cushions and interior colors that travel through time and spaces bringing even the mundane to life. Each painting is a unique and sometimes humorous view of a slice of everyday life - a single act but in a different play.
Brantley has always been interested in what people’s gestures intend or what their living spaces inform about them. Her work reveals her fascination with how people embellish their bodies and surroundings and what it says about their life stories. Narratives don’t have to be told in words.
This is the artist’s first solo show at Touchstone Gallery. Her work has been shown at The Art League Gallery in Alexandria, Gallery B of the Maryland Federation of Art and The Capital Hill Art League among others. Two of her paintings were chosen to grace the cover of The Capital Hill Rag newspaper in Washington, DC - Hanky Panky for September 2014 and Bloomers for March 2016. In 2013, her painting Natalie was chosen as a finalist in the abstract/experimental category in The Artist’s Magazine’s 30th Annual National Art Competition out of 6000 entries.
Uh-Oh
For more information, contact: Ksenia Grishkova, Director, email info@touchstonegallery.com or call
202-347-2787