Sarah McKenzie, Void exhibition

Big Box by Sarah McKenzie | acrylic on canvas | 60" x 60"

Jen Bekman Gallery hosts from September 10th through October 23rd 2011, Void, eight oil and acrylic paintings by Sarah McKenzie. Void is McKenzie’s second solo exhibition at the gallery.

Anonymous hotel rooms, nondescript city views and construction sites are the subjects of McKenzie’s second solo show at Jen Bekman Gallery. Depicted in large-scale and intimately-sized works with subdued colors and minimal compositions, these spaces belie the power and intensity of McKenzie’s newest paintings. A sense of wanting in their solitary, empty atmospheres is heightened by obscured vantage points—McKenzie’s subjects are seen from above and at ground-level, through hotel windows, curtains and screens. Alternately transparent and opaque, Void gives shape and presence to absence and loss, enveloping the viewer in deafening silence.

Gallery founder Jen Bekman Notes:

The work in Void is restrained and precise but more contemplative than analytical. While construction remains a dominant theme in Sarah's work, these new paintings relay the reassurance found in our capacity to build. While the spaces she's depicted emanate melancholy and make space for solitude, a certain comfort can be in them and their solidity.

The daughter of a land use planner, Sarah McKenzie was born in Connecticut in 1971 and grew up in New Jersey. McKenzie received her BA in film studies from Yale University and her MFA in painting from the University of Michigan. After graduate school, she taught painting and drawing at the college level for eight years, including five years as a professor at the Cleveland Institute of Art. McKenzie was the 2006 First Place Winner of the National Young Painters Competition, hosted by Miami University. Her paintings have appeared in Art in America, New American Paintings, Dwell, Landscape Architecture, the Miami Herald, the Denver Post and on NYTimes.com. The artist lives in Colorado with her husband and two children.

Void is at Jen Bekman Gallery, 6 Spring Street, New York, New York. Hours: Wednesday through Sunday, noon to 6 p.m. or by private appointment. For additional information and images, email press@jenbekman.com or phone 212.219.0166.