NEW YORK, NY.- Jeff Sonhouse's new solo exhibition, Pawnography, will be on display at The Tilton Gallery (8 East 76th Street), November 6 - December 23, 2008. Sonhouse will present new mixed media paintings and works on paper that explore the black male subject as an evolving social and political construct in contemporary American culture. The opening reception will take place Saturday, November 8, from 6 - 8pm.
Alternately flat and textural, atmospheric and brash, the resulting works evoke a host of classical and modern references to painting, particularly the tradition of portraiture. Sonhouse's recent portraits vary in scale, and depict both known and unknown figures, the former usually identifiable despite their vividly masked faces. In "Condoleeza Rice", 2007, for example, the only image of a woman in the show, the head of the Secretary of State floats over two overlapping circles of blue and yellow on a black ground. Even with her chin cut off, and face covered in a zigzag pattern of red and white (eyes, nostrils and mouth visible only through what are made to look like cut-out holes), the iconic features of the controversial Rice are instantly recognizable. The strongest identifier, ironically, is her hair, which Sonhouse sculpts out of steel wool, its contours made to formally echo that of the circles.
Similarly, "Visually Impaired," 2008, a large-scale work that features a 3/4 representation of a tall black man in sunglasses, shimmering blue suit, and black overcoat - holding a microphone in one hand and his coat open with the other - suggests none other than P Diddy himself. Dressed In the trappings of his success, white and blue splotches on his nose and face, he appears to be doing some kind of magic trick. Like the visage of Rice, the pop mogul' is given a strange, incandescent power in Sonhouse's hands, one that evokes the razzle-dazzle world of politics and entertainment. If such portrayals are more narrative in nature than previous work by virtue of their well-known subjects, the sense of mystery and masquerade Sonhouse conjures is still very much intact. Indeed, the dynamic works in Pawnography suggest that all identity may be mediated these days, but what lies beneath the surface is still more resistant than we think.
A full color catalogue with essay's by Greg Tate and Isolde Brielmaier will accompany the exhibition.
Sonhouse's work was included in Legacies: Contemporary Artists Reflect on Slavery, New York Historical Society, New York, NY, 2006, and Frequency, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY, 2005. He is the recipient of a Joan Mitchell Foundation grant, and will be featured in the exhibition 30 Americans at the Rubell Family Collection in Miami from December 3, 2008 May 30, 2009.
