NEW YORK, NY.- The Port Authority Bus Terminal, Chashama and the Hell’s Kitchen Foundation are presenting new work by Jill Slaymaker, at the Port Authority Bus Terminal’s “Project Find” space on 9th Avenue between 40th and 41st Streets in Hell’s Kitchen, New York City.

Ms. Slaymaker, who lives and works in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood, has created a series of large new paintings in oil, acrylic and aluminum leaf on canvas, as well as smaller works on paper and wood, using gouache and ink.

She states, “Influenced by Asian textile design, seen on recent trips to Japan and Hawaii; an art residency in Italy observing gold leaf techniques; Dante's Divine Comedy and the Hindu epic, The Ramayana, among others, my otherworldly environments are often inhabited by a lone figure lost in a chaotic world.”

Combining mostly nature-based, fragmented “puzzle piece” images (from sketchbooks, photos, imagination and the outdoors) Slaymaker creates relationships between disparate elements, always looking for connections. “I’m attempting to confirm the concept from Western physics and Eastern philosophy that all phenomena are interdependent and interconnected. Fritjof Capra's writings on chaos theory are especially fascinating to me. He explains that, thanks to advanced computer technology, the movement of clouds, fire, falling leaves and other forms of motion in nature previously thought to be somewhat random or 'chaotic,’ are actually measurable and have very similar mathematical patterns.”

Slaymaker’s new series of gouache explorations usually begin with parts of an orange tree. During a trip to Rome, after becoming ill, she quickly healed while painting under a 900-year-old orange tree still bearing fruit. “The orange tree is for me a symbol of rejuvenation and hope. It appears in almost all my work, as I try to capture the vastness, complexity and mystery of nature, while also maintaining a sense of humor and joy.”

Slaymaker’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including at the Tate Modern, London; Dabawenyo Museum, Philippines; Blum Helman, NY, Kustera Projects, NY and Pierogi, NY with recent solo exhibitions at The Nabi Museum of the Arts, NJ and The Davis Mini-Museum of Contemporary Art in Barcelona. She was nominated for a 2018 Winter Workspace at Wave Hill, and was recently awarded a grant from the Hell’s Kitchen Foundation. Her work is in numerous public collections including MoMA, NY and the Whitney Museum of American Art, NY.