Thursday, March 09, 2006

JENNY MORGAN SELECTED FOR INCLUSION IN PRESTIGIOUS NATIONAL PORTRAITURE EXHIBITION

+ gallery is delighted to announce that represented artist Jenny Morgan has been selected for inclusion in the Outwin Boochever 2006 Portraiture Competition sponsored by Washington D.C’s Smithsonian Institution. Morgan's portrait "Falling Into," which was first presented to the public at Pirate in November of 2005 as part of the artist's exhibition "Mine Not Yours," is the fantastic painting that was selected from a semifinalist pool of 100 artists culled from an entry base of over four thousand artists from across the United States in 2005. The Exhibition associated with the competition will be on view at Washington D.C.'s National Portrait Gallery from July 1, 2006 until February 18, 2007, and will be the lead exhibition for the grand opening of the Gallery.

Those of you with a good memory know Jenny as the very first intern at the gallery a few years back while she was still a student at the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design (and the gallery was still called Cordell Taylor). Others might recognize Jenny as the lovely face that's often behind the bar at the galleries opening receptions. But those who really know Jenny understand her as one of the brightest talents to emerge onto the scene in recent years. Morgan utilizes oil paints to create dramatic realist portraits that resonate with deep emotional impact. Minimal in style, her works are uniquely cropped to reveal parts of the body, sometimes in motion, other times static. The figures are commonly intertwined with a fabric element that creates a powerful, emotional symbol with strong historic traditions but framed with a signature style. The 24 year old artist often works in diptychs and triptychs that create a unique visual flow while also promoting a sense of separation of the body.

Morgan's talent as a painter was quickly recognized by Ivar and Gilbert, as well as local art-legend Phil Bender, director of renowned local artist-run oasis Pirate. Morgan's first exhibitions at Pirate served as a proving ground for her skills and innate ability to put together fluid and consistent bodies of work, immediately delivering a signature style through her figurative works that drew both praise and local collector interest. Following her ground-breaking exhibition "Soliloquies" at Pirate in 2004, Zeile determined that Morgan was more than ready to move into the commercial realm and become one of the galleries youngest represented artists.

In May of 2005, Morgan debuted a new body of work "First Person" at + gallery alongside two of the cities most recognized local artists, Peter Illig and John McEnroe. Success was not immediate within the new environment, but Morgan concluded the year with tremendous success. Her artwork was selected for inclusion into the prestigious national juried publication "New American Paintings," along with three other artists from the + gallery stable. The publication brought immediate attention to the young artist from a larger market, securing her first sales outside of Colorado, including a significant purchase of three canvases by the Museum of Fine Arts Key West in Florida. Morgan and the gallery were notified of her acceptance as a semifinalist in the Outwin Boochever 2006 Portraiture Competition in October of 2005, ultimately leading to her selection as a finalist this year.

We know you've heard lots about Jenny in this newsletter in the past, but this is truly an inspiring moment in her career where she is ready to emerge onto a greater national platform. The gallery is extremely proud of her achievements and to partner with this exceptional artist. Morgan is currently producing a new series of paintings that will serve as her first solo-exhibition at + gallery, scheduled for September 2006.