In December 2016 we presented a solo booth at PULSE Miami in conjunction with the art fairs of Art Basel. I exhibited the work of artist Jessica Drenk. This morning I was going through my photos of the fair and was once again astonished and amazed by the brilliance of Jessica’s art. I know that I am biased because I am a gallery that represents her but truly, the breadth and originality of her work and the gorgeous presentation were astonishing. Jessica takes ordinary materials which include pencils, q-tips, cotton pads, PVC pipes and for this fair...the wonderful book as one of her primary materials and inspiration. With the book alone, Jessica created the large installation “Cerebral Mapping” which had the wonderful pages and spines flowing forth with our collective culture, honoring knowledge and language and the pure pleasures of reading. Jessica made individual sculptures from books that were carved, manipulated, sliced and sculpted together in her poignant “Reading our Remains” series. Each work was fossil like yet so contemporary and tactile. In her porcelain skins series, lovely fragile works are created from q-tips, cotton pad and gauze, sewn together and then dipped in porcelain and fired in a kiln.
For the first time, Jessica also presented marble sculptures that were inspired by a trip to Iceland and the ephemeral nature of ice floes and ice bergs breaking off, tossing and being sculpted by the sea. Jessica preserved these elegant moments before the ice melts in her elegant marble sculptures. They were so strong and elegant and gentle at the same time. While the materials were all so different in this exhibition; Jessica’s thoughtful and very artful way of handling the materials and her reverence for nature and the environment were a common theme.