NYAB Event - Maryam Jafri “Economy Corner”

Maryam Jafri “Economy Corner”

P!

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P! presents the first US solo exhibition of artist Maryam Jafri. Characterized by a research-based methodology that focuses on consumerism, archival histories, and the commodification of desire, Jafri exhibits here Generic Corner, a new installation in its North American premiere.

Generic Corner consists of packaging plucked from the history of consumer products alongside still-life photographs. During the 1970s and 1980s, generic food products featuring stark, black and white graphics were directed towards low-income and cost-conscious shoppers. These “unbranded” surfaces connoted cheapness and economy, reflected in their lower price points. Yet such generic goods, recovered and presented by Jafri decades later, become fresh projection screens for individual desires. Resembling conceptual art, monochromatic pop, and typographic samples alike, Jafri’s appropriation and recontextualization of these anachronistic consumer objects suggest alternative histories and futures of very different kinds of products.

Maryam Jafri is an artist working across genres and media, including video, sculpture, performance, and photography. Recent solo exhibition include Generic Corner, Kunsthalle Basel (2015); The Day After, Betonsalon, Paris (2015); Mouthfeel, Gasworks, London (2014); and Backdrop, Bielefelder Kunstverein, Bielefeld, Germany (2013). Group exhibitions include Sao Paolo Biennial 2016 (forthcoming); Belgian Pavilion, Venice Biennale (2015); Gothenburg Biennial 2015; Meeting Points 7, Beirut Art Center (2015, with additional traveling venues: 21er Haus, Vienna; Institute for African Studies, Moscow; Contemporary Image Collective, Cairo); When Attitudes Became Forms Become Attitudes, CCA Wattis, San Francisco (2012) and Museum of Contemporary Art, Detroit (2013); Manifesta 9, Genk (2012); Taipei Biennial 2012; and Shanghai Biennial 2012. She holds a BA in English & American Literature from Brown University, an MA from NYU/Tisch School of The Arts, and is a graduate of the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program. She lives and works in New York and Copenhagen.