JEN DWYER'S Constructed Paradise

Hashimoto Contemporary NYC is excited to be offering Constructed Paradise, a series of new sculptures from Jen Dwyer. Curated by Jennifer Rizzo, these pieces with be available exclusively in person at Hashimoto Contemporary NYC (54 Ludlow Street), through September 2022.

ARTIST STATEMENT

Female empowerment, mystic landscapes, pleasure juxtaposed with melancholic yearning are intertwined in my current body of work, Constructed Paradise. After graduating from my MFA program in 2019, two years of residency-hopping, and ultimately settling in a country farmhouse that is my live/workspace, my natural surroundings have been taking the forefront in my ideas, inspiring my Constructed Paradise series to become a focus in my practice. In this ongoing body of work, I create what I call “plant ladies” that take shape in ceramic sculptures and lamps, as well as oil paintings.

I use an amalgamation of positive emotions through vibrant colors and light while fusing female body parts with fantastical plants to create a narrative of intrigue and mystery. I love blurring boundaries between art and gender, women and nature, the artificial and the natural; I find that the desire to separate these things is an attempt to make them easier to control. By creating a surreal landscape of sculptures and paintings, my hope is that the subjugation of women’s bodies and our natural world will become less defined and harder to subjugate.

I also infuse art history into my work, drawing inspiration from the 18th century rococo aesthetic, specifically Sèvres porcelain from France, surrealism, Post Impressionism and Art Nouveau. I think of my practice as a mixing pot to blend all of my interests into a unique body of work. I love remixing styles to create an intoxicating ambiguity by fusing two or more things together that one wouldn’t necessarily associate with one another, to create a cognitive dissonance that blurs boundaries between art and gender, taste and power, and female agency and our natural world.

“Zinnia”, 2022, porcelain, glaze, underglaze, 24k gold luster, 7.25 x 4.5 x 2.5 inches

“Sweet Pea Plant”, 2019, porcelain, glaze, underglaze, 4.25 x 2.5 x 2.5 inches

“Cherry”, 2022, porcelain, glaze, underglaze, 24k gold luster, 7 x 5.5 x 2.5 inches

“Naomi”, 2022, ceramics, glaze, underglaze, 24k gold luster, lamp, 8.5 x 6.5 x 3 inches

“Star”, 2022, porcelain, glaze, underglaze, 24k gold luster, 11 x 5.5 x 3.5 inches

“Begonia”, ceramics, glaze, underglaze, 24k gold luster, 2 x 1.5 x 1 inches

“Azalea”, 2022, ceramics, glaze, underglaze, 24k gold luster, 2 x 1.5 x 1 inches

“Amelia”, 2022, Stoneware, glaze, underglaze, 24k gold luster, 5.5 x 4 x 2 inches

Jen Dwyer grew up on the West Coast, in the Bay Area, California and currently lives and works on the East Coast, between Connecticut and New York. Her playful ceramic sculptures, paintings and otherworldly installations evoke dreams, fantasy, and the desire to escape to a world of one’s own creation. Through her artwork, Dwyer creates a uniquely powerful, caring, and intimate feminine world, underscored by the artist’s study of Paleolithic talismans, the decadent Rococo aesthetic, and contemporary girlhood culture and ecofeminism.

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