Release Metaphors: Mythos and Messiahs (Jenny Arenson & Patrick Treacy)

March 7 - April 25, 2008

Opening Reception: Friday, March 7th, 7:30PM - 10:00PM

Please scroll down for the images of artists' works and CV's.

RELEASE METAPHORS: Mythos and Messiahs is a two-person exhibition featuring works by Winnipeg-based artist Patrick Treacy and New York City-based artist Jenny Arenson (b. in Winnipeg). Both artists consider escape metaphors that reverberate throughout everyday thought and practice.

Treacy explores escape scenarios involving dogs, wolves and manikins to give form to everyday hopes and anxieties culturally experienced and expressed through myths (Mythos), origin stories, dramas and fictions. The scenarios possess the performative and hypnotic aspects reminiscent of Houdini's stunts. In some of Treacy's works, there also exist subtle references to the story of the founders of Rome, brothers Romulus and Remus, who in their infancy fled from a threat by a resentful patriarch. The twins survived in a wolf den, nursed by an alpha female. These stories point to a more general preoccupation with the highlights in the anthropological history of Western Civilisation.

Arenson paints various individuals (Jewish and non-Jewish) as Hassidic Jews by bestowing on them the identifying marks and accessories such as yarmulkes, black wide-brimmed hats, long beards, and side-locks. Hassids are an Orthodox sect that arose out of a pietistic movement originating in Eastern Europe in the 18th century. In Judaism, a Messiah is a long-waited figure who would deliver a particular group from oppression. By allowing these individuals to exist on the canvas, comfortable in their culturally and politically-charged garb, Arenson points to her personal and celebratory search for the Messiah, the King or the spiritual saviour, which signifies a collective hope for release and the existence of the extraordinary in the ordinary.

- Aldona Dziedziejko

E-mail: matzahballs@gmail.com

24" x 18"

Jenny Arenson - Eschatology

Your only obligation in any lifetime is to be true to yourself. Being true to anyone else or anything else is not only impossible, but the mark of a fake messiah.
- Richard Bach

Art provides a safe place in which to operate. A place where ideas, thoughts, knowledge, chance, beliefs, and questions manifest into reality, or at least provide a documentation of the process of trying to get there. It's something about life, love, g-d, and pain, and the search for something real. In life there are divine moments of clarity and amazement mixed with confusion; my art practice is no different.
- Jenny Arenson

Jenny Arenson (b.1978)
has been intrigued by the vaguely defined world of art 
since 2002.

Education
2008-2011: MA - Jewish Theological School, New York, NY, USA
2007: BFA (Honours) - Emily Carr Institute, Vancouver, British 
	Columbia
2002-2004: School Of Art, University Of Manitoba, Winnipeg, 
	Manitoba, Canada
1996-1999: University of Winnipeg, Manitoba

Solo Exhibitions
2008: TBA, Semai Gallery, Winnipeg, Manitoba

Group Exhibitions
2008: Mythos and Messiah, two person exhibit, with Patrick 
	Treacy, Semai Gallery, Winnipeg, Manitoba
2008: Isolating Inspiration, Atelier Galley, Vancouver, British 
	Columbia
2007: In and Out, Thesis Grad Show, Emily Carr Institute, 
	Vancouver, British Columbia
2006: Before-Xmas Exhibition, Semai Gallery, Winnipeg, 
	Manitoba
2006: Collage Party Show, Anti Social,Vancouver, British 
	Columbia
2004: End of Year Show, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg
2003: End of Year Show, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg

Press
Manitoban, Winnipeg, Canada - Vol 90. October 22
Manitoban, Winnipeg, Canada - Vol 90. November 13
Manitoban, Winnipeg, Canada - Vol 91. January 14
Manitoban, Winnipeg, Canada - Vol 91. January 21
Manitoban, Winnipeg, Canada - Vol 91. February 4
Manitoban, Winnipeg, Canada - Vol 91. March 10
Manitoban, Winnipeg, Canada - Vol 91. March 17


Private Collections
In Canada, England, Israel, Sweden, and the USA

E-mail: trekind@mts.net

16" x 13"

13" x 16"

Patrick Treacy- Escapology

I was reading a book on Houdini when I started these drawings. What fascinated me about Houdini was how he repeatedly dramatized sadomasochistic contests between torturers and victims. He kept staging these transformations from weakness to strength using all sorts of confinements. His acts of exhibitionism were powerful acts of self-invention that made him an icon of the times. Houdini's public melodramas started me thinking in a very different direction. I wanted to keep the idea of escape, but from or to what? Escapology began as a journal of drawings of figures emerging from boxes. In this journal I have used the visual metaphor of the box to explore the idea of escape from physical and psychological confinement...
- Patrick Treacy


Patrick Treacy

Education
1976: BFA (Honours), University of Manitoba, Winnipeg

Solo Exhibitions
2007: Definitely Superior Art Gallery, Thunder Bay
2004: Gallery 1C03, University of Winnipeg, Winnipeg
2003: Main/Access Gallery, Winnipeg
2002: Definitely Superior Art Gallery, Thunder Bay
2001: Site Gallery, Winnipeg
1993: Vortex Gallery, Salt Spring Island
1987: Nancy Poole Studio, Toronto
1986: Brian Melnychenko Gallery, Winnipeg
1984: Brian Melnychenko Gallery, Winnipeg

Group Exhibitions
2008: Semai Gallery, Winnipeg
2007: Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg
2006: Plug In ICA, Winnipeg
2006: Gallery Oserdok, Winnipeg
2005: Urban Shaman, Winnipeg
1993: Artropolis '93, Vancouver
1992: Ace Art Inc., Winnipeg
1990: Centennial Concert Hall, Winnipeg
1983: Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg

Public Presentations
2004: Artist talk - Gallery 1C03, University of Winnipeg, 
	Winnipeg
2003: Artist talk - Main/Access Gallery, Winnipeg
2002: Artist talk - Definitely Superior Gallery, Thunder Bay
1993: Mahon Hall, Salt Spring Island

Grandt and Awards
2007: Manitoba Arts Council Visual Arts "B" Project Grant
2005: Manitoba Arts Council Visual Arts "B" Project Grant
2002: Manitoba Arts Council Visual Arts "B" Project Grant
2000: Manitoba Arts Council Visual Arts "B" Project Grant
1992: Manitoba Arts Council Visual Arts "B" Project Grant
1986: Canada Council Emerging Artist Grant

Collections
Public - Winnipeg Art Gallery, Gallery 1C03 (University 
		of Winnipeg), 
             Department of Culture and Heritage
		(Government of Manitoba)
Private - Bank of Montreal, Investor's Group, James A. 
		Richardson and Sons

Reviews
2004: Danielle Forest, The Uniter, Issue 10, p.19, Winnipeg
2004: Jennifer Gibson, curatorial essay for Gallery 1C03, 
	University of Winnipeg
2004: A Channel Wired
2001: Paul Nolin, Uptown Magazine, p.7, Winnipeg
1986: Robert Enright, Border Crossings Magazine, p.p.10-17
1983: Arthur Adamson, Arts Manitoba Vol.3, No.1, p.34

Published Work
1990: Contemporary Verse 2. Vol.13, No.2, p.p.31-34 - poems
1989: Contemporary Verse 2. Vol.12, No.1, p.p.50-57 - images
1984: Northern Light, No.12, cover art, p.p.6-12, 21-32

Memberships
Ace Art Inc.
Platform Gallery
Urban Shaman
Winnipeg Art Gallery