Jenny Brillhart. Where the rubber meets the road

About

The material interplay of painting, photography, and sculptural elements form the basis for Brillhart’s approach to her surroundings and her everyday life. In particular, overlooked, mundane, yet deeply familiar objects and spaces serve as the central motif.

Her current exhibition invites viewers to dive into the realm of the still life as landscape, similar to her earlier series Overcast and Saxony Hotel. The title of this exhibition, Where the rubber meets the road, is connected to the artist’s background. In a figurative sense, the American proverb can be understood as a critical moment, as what’s essentially important in life, the potential. At the same time, the title is a reference to the place where the artist lives. Burning rubber in attempts to make long and very visible tire tracks is not an uncommon craft in rural Maine.

The moment when the tire moves on the pavement, marks the potential for process, movement and choice. The seam where two planes meet, like wall and floor or land and sky represent this occasion for opportunity in many of these works. Brillhart’s large-format oil paintings are often the result of carefully planned arrangements of found and made materials, which she constructs on walls and floors of her studio. Place, gravity, and time (moving and still) play a role. As do light, shadow, depth, surface, perspective, and value. Through these elements, ideas about object function, display and beauty are suggested. These threads run throughout her entire body of work.