PROVIDENCE, RI.- Yellow Peril Gallery presents “(numb)Charlottes”, an exploration of the pleasures of the whimsical, macabre, grotesque and glamorous by New Bedford-based artist Jennifer Avery, opening Saturday, February 1, 2014. Avery is the fourth artist selected for Yellow Peril’s emerging artists series, COLLECT ART, which has been introducing solo exhibitions from fresh new talent to the global art market since 2012.
Art practice as identity and obsession is at the core of “(numb)Charlottes”. In this case, it’s pretty much dolls: 2-D dolls, 3-D dolls, paper dolls, glass dolls, small, medium and large dolls, doll dresses, doll pets, and, of course, doll furniture. “Charlotte is derived from Frozen Charlottes, the tiny, usually nude, penny dolls made in obsessive bulk during the Belle Époque,” explains Avery. “Frozen Charlottes are named after a folk song about a young woman who refused to wear her coat and froze to death en route to a grand ball.”
In “(numb)Charlottes”, the objects are more than just dolls; they are corpses and self-portraits. This whimsically macabre mix of quantity, identity, femininity, and folklore deeply apply to Avery’s art practice. “Absurdities, contractions, opposites amuse and frighten me – I like things in the uncanny realm of attraction and repulsion,” she shares. “Most of my work takes on the aspects of childhood; particularly dolls through a lens of a cherished nightmare, and identity as these little cherubs are all some sort of self-portrait. One of the inspirations for my adoration of competing dualities comes from a thorough enjoyment and loathing of socially constructed performances of gender and femininity.”
Since winning the Grand Prize at Brown University’s 33rd annual Student Exhibition in March 2013 (Yellow Peril Gallery Director Vanphouthon Souvannasane and Curator Robert P. Stack were the guest jurors), Avery has been very active in the contemporary art scene in Providence. At Brown’s List Art Center in October, she presented “Déshabiller or ‘The Dress Show’”, a collection of vintage dresses that she wore everyday for an entire year. In December, Avery curated “More Beautiful for Having Been Broken”, a group exhibition featuring artists from Brown and RISD, and she was the featured artist at the venerable Dirt Palace in Olneyville with her installation “Terpseachorian Evolutions for a Party of Little Girls.”
The opening reception for “(numb)Charlottes” is Saturday, February 1, from 6PM – 9PM. The exhibition will be on display until Saturday, March 1, 2014. This is Avery’s first solo exhibition at Yellow Peril Gallery.
JENNIFER AVERY is a sophomore resumed under graduate (RUE) student at Brown University, where she is an art editor for Bluestockings Magazine. She cut her teeth in the alt/cabaret movement of the most recent fin de siècle, and received her Associates degree in Fine Art from Bristol Community College in 2012. She currently lives in New Bedford, Massachusetts with her cats, various collections and fiancé. More more info about Jennifer Avery, visit jenniferlavery.com.
