JONATHAN BRILLIANT ON-SITE
Exhibition Dates: June 19 - August 30, 2015
Exhibition Opening: June 18, 2015 (Annual Meeting)
Artist: Jonathan Brilliant
Curatorial Statement
GreenHill will offer visitors an immersive art experience during its summer 2015 exhibition entitled Jonathan Brilliant On-Site. It is the first major exhibition in the Triad of the constructed environments of Raleigh-based artist Jonathan Brilliant known for his labor intensive installations. In recent years Brilliant has utilized repurposed materials sourced primarily from coffee shop culture – composing his palette from disposable wooden stir sticks, iced coffee straws, paper cup sleeves and plastic cup lids. When questioned on his choice of coffee-related materials the artist has stated: “In this ongoing series of work, I now continue to explore my sense that the coffee shop and related consumer environs are more organic and nurturing than the ‘real’ natural environment.”
During the first ten days of the Jonathan Brilliant On-Site exhibition visitors will be able to observe firsthand the construction and evolution of Brilliant’s immersive environment. Brilliant has developed a specific construction technique for each of the coffee products he uses. These techniques allow him to create airy woven walls of wooden sticks held together uniquely by tension and compression; meandering suspended paper pipes; and target-shaped geometric wall reliefs that evoke manufactured reiterations of Jasper Johns paintings. His environments appear new-age in their responsiveness to site yet project a strong traditional craft-based sensibility in their elegant construction. Though his woven stick structures are Brilliant’s most well-known art form, he states that “…central to all my work is an interest in patterning and mark-making fused with the use of pre-consumer manufactured materials and the use of rhythm and repetition …”
During open artist “residency hours,” visitors will be able to converse with the artist as he creates his installation – a process which includes “weaving, welding, stacking, arranging, drumming, beating, rusting, and drawing.” The resulting installations will be architectural in scale and surround the viewer with “an environment created from nothing but the accoutrements of the coffee cup.” By making his working process transparent, Brilliant opens a dialogue with the public around the “effects of labor, performance and materials applied to an exhibition space.” The artist suggests that being able to experience the evolution of his monumental structures in situ offers “a visceral experience for the viewer, often engaging audiences in new and unexpected ways.” Brilliant incorporates elements specific to each site in the conception of his work and in The Gallery at GreenHill, housed in the former front offices of the old News and Record building, the artist was particularly taken with the ceiling’s decorative plaster egg and dart moldings and the four concrete columns that divide the gallery. He will use the moldings as inspirations for patterning and printmaking while the columns to support his monumental tensile structure. GreenHill’s exhibition also includes works on paper and smaller assemblages with large mono-prints made from ferrous metal objects and crates enclosing 3-d structures.
In the News
Additional Resources
View Press Release HERE
Vie Image Gallery HERE