ThreeWalls Announces: Day Jobs July 6, 2007

ThreeWalls Announces: Day Jobs
A group show with Tim Best, Kyle Brumfield, and Japeth Mennes

OPENING RECEPTION: Friday July 6, 2007, 6:00 – 9:00 PM
ON VIEW: July 6, 2007 – August 4, 2007

CHICAGO: Day Jobs is focused on the day-to-day work that supports artists and, in turn, often influences or steers the artwork and driving concepts. Kyle Brumfield (Chicago), Japeth Mennes (Chicago), and Tim Best (New Orleans) are all full-time artists, but are diverted with their “real jobs” daily in order to survive—a common syndrome with emerging artists. Brumfield’s self-portraits of digging holes are akin to the ostrich hiding its head in the sand when in danger. Though the danger around disappears (real world beckons), the imagination of the ostrich is protected and calm—an apt analogy to the process of art making. Mennes’ tedious, repetitive, and systematic lines reflect the day-to-day lull of 9-5 work productivity. Yet, as a server at a Chicago pizza restaurant, his day job reflects the exact opposite hinting that he perhaps is finding solace in making marks to contrast the clatter of the restaurant industry. And Best’s portraits of business men and women stand as humorous, yet dark and sinister portraits of the daily world he experiences as an Information Technologist. In removing the staged behavior of business etiquette, the figures—suspended in blank space—appear tense and unable to participate in their career realities. Day Jobs illustrates the less-than-romantic actualities that “starving artists” must tackle in order to make their work and the intriguing output that the daytime reality often has on the artist.

Official Website: http://www.three-walls.org