Jen Mazza “Disobedience is Not Careless”

CUNY Graduate Center/ The James Gallery

[Image: Jen Mazza "Red Flower" (2018)]

This event has ended.

What does painting specifically “do”? Painting has been a mode of public expression for many systems of culture and politics, and as Theodor Adorno noted, painting contains sedimented time. It is a slow medium, unfolding as it works on and with the viewer. The material of paint is itself a language that, because of its specific materiality, proportion, and location, creates friction. In the contemporary moment when all images seem recognizable, painting stands out from the digital realm. Painting is a site where viewers may experiment with piecing together constellations of meaning from fragments. In today’s visual culture, such a practice of precise looking and questioning is “disobedient,” in the words of Robert Duncan’s poem “The Law.” Examining a painting offers a valuable slice of time to wrestle with what we assume we know about visual language and to question what we take for granted in making meaning.

The exhibition and related programs “Disobedience is Not Careless” with painter Jen Mazza explores language and quotation through painting, philosophy and poetry, curated by Katherine Carl.