Opening Reception: Friday, June 1, 6-9:00PM
On View: June 1-June 30, 2007
If you found an Il Duce action figure at WalMart a few years back, you had a chance encounter with one of Packard Jennings subversive, provocative (and funny) public interventions. Mussolini was a part of Jennings Centennial Society line of products which were made available at WalMart through stealth installation, and effectively launched Jennings into a practice of smart and irreverent artwork that takes aim at mega-corporations, politics and American fundamentalism. Jennings has, among other things, produced billboard and bus stop interventionist advertising, terrorist alert signage, and a series of instructional pamphlets (disseminated via covert placement) which detail steps towards rebellious mayhem, ultimately leading to utopia.
While in residency from now until July, Jennings will exhibit work from his archive, including original drawings from the recent Business Reply Pamphlet, alongside his new front-page news project, which is simultaneously on display in Oakland. Replacing the front-page news of U.S.A. Today with his own content a somewhat rabid assessment of current events Jennings will swap out the original papers, displayed in newspaper vending machines, with his own. Inviting participation from citizens throughout the country, instructions and template for creating your own front-page will be available on Jennings website. Those who participate are asked to document their interventions and submit for posting both online and at the galleries.
Please join us on May 17 at 7:00 PM for an artist talk and discussion about Jennings plans for his Chicago residency, which include the production of two new, participatory videos, Bad, Ugly, Good and Everything You Can Remember in 5 Minutes. Filming will occur throughout the shows duration June 1 to June 30 with new work on view as the residency progresses.
Jennings recent solo exhibitions include, Southern Exposure Gallery and Catherine Clark Gallery (San Francisco); Man on Horse, Jack Hanley II Storefront (San Francisco) and Cultural Quarantine, Part 1, 2, & 3 at Sanitary Landfill Co. and Southern Exposure (San Francisco) and North Spring Gallery (Los Angeles), respectively. Jennings has been included in numerous group exhibitions across the United States, Canada and Europe, including the traveling exhibition, Illegal Art (www.illegal-art.org). Jennings work has also been published in New American Painting, Adbusters, Playboy, Anthem, Kitchen Sink, Scene Missing, New Art Examiner, and Atomica. His work has been reviewed in Art Forum, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Boston Globe, and the Boston Phoenix.
Links:
USA Today exhibition booklet (pdf)
Jennings in Chicago Reader (downloadable PDF)
Jennings in NewCity (downloadable PDF)
Jennings Represented by Catherine Clark Gallery
