Three Sculpture Exhibitions to Open at The Aldrich In Addition to a Highly Anticipated Debut of New Oil Paintings By Neil Jenney

June, 2007

Ridgefield, CT (June 2007): NEIL JENNEY: NORTH AMERICA; Mary Judge: Studies in Segmented Form; Norm Magnusson: On This Site Stood, Main Street Sculpture Project; and Michael Somoroff: Illumination I will debut at The Aldrich on Sunday, June 24, with a public exhibition reception from 3 to 5 pm.

An artist panel prior to the reception at 2 pm will feature Michael Somoroff in dialogue with art historian David Anfam. Guided tours will be offered and refreshments served. Round-trip transportation from New York City is available; please call the Museum at 203.438.4519 for reservations. WSHU is the official media sponsor of the exhibition reception.

The Aldrich will host a special Behind the Scenes preview of the four highly anticipated exhibitions on Friday, June 22, 2007 from 6:30 to 8 pm, where members are invited to join Aldrich artists, curators, and Trustees for a private reception and sneak preview featuring exhibiting artist Mary Judge. Drinks and hors d’oeuvres will be served, courtesy of Restaurant 121. Please contact Lousana Campagna at 203.438.4519 to join or renew; memberships will be available at the door.

Exhibition Summaries:

NEIL JENNEY: NORTH AMERICA (June 24 to September 3, 2007)
NEIL JENNEY: NORTH AMERICA introduces new work by one of the most elusive artists of our time. With a focus on the landscape imagery of North America, this is the artist’s first museum exhibition since 1994. It features paintings, drawings, and a selection of text-based canvases ranging in date from the early seventies, when Jenney developed his signature good paintings, to the current day. Featuring meticulous application of pigments in a process unique to the artist, the works are reminiscent of nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century landscape paintings by artists such as John Frederick Kensett, Willard Leroy Metcalf, Grant Wood, and Edward Hopper. Jenney brings the tradition of natural realism into the twenty-first century, while addressing imminent environmental concerns and offering commentary on liberty, inequality, and the sanctity of the individual. His complex blend of important imagery and sculptural complexity subtly yet surely focuses on issues facing North America and the world today.   

Mary Judge: Studies in Segmented Form (June 24 to September 3, 2007)
Mary Judge's provocative new installation will focus on the relationship between a large-scale cast concrete sculpture sited in the Museum's inner courtyard and a spolvero ("dusting" in Italian) wall drawing that will fill the wall of the adjacent corridor gallery. In this presentation, Judge continues her interest in making reductive, process-oriented work that is humanized by the utilization of organic geometry and a sensuous use of materials.

Norm Magnusson: On This Site Stood, Main Street Sculpture Project (June 24 to August 12, 2007)
Playing off the familiar state historical marker, Norm Magnusson has created a series of cast aluminum sculptures that cleverly focus attention on contemporary social and political issues. The artist is creating three new markers especially for this installation, one of them directly inspired by the Museum’s historical building.

Michael Somoroff: Illumination I (June 24 to October 14, 2007)
Michael Somoroff’s Illumination I—previously exhibited at the Rothko Chapel in Houston—will be installed in the Cornish Sculpture Garden for its final US appearance before heading to Cologne in 2008. Somoroff’s interest in sacred architecture and its relationship to the phenomenon of light provoked him to analyze the light conditions in the Rothko Chapel on the day in 2003 when the US attacked Iraq. He combined that information with the movement of sunlight through a historically-accurate digital model of a mosque in ruins. Installed with its open side facing east toward the rising sun, Illumination I stands over 20 feet high and weighs more than 22,000 pounds. The hybrid structure, designed with digital photography, computer modeling, and CNC milling, is composed of fiberglass and resin, with a final coat of traditional, hand-applied stucco. This complex work blurs the boundaries between architecture and sculpture and functions as much as a place as an object. (Somoroff’s related project, Illumination—an immersive 3-D surround-sound video installation utilizing high definition technology—will be on view from June 21 through August 10, 2007, at BravinLee programs, 508 West 26th Street, New York, NY, 10001.www.bravinlee.com , 212.462.4404, inquiry@bravinlee.com.)