Jennifer Williams at The Homefront Gallery

By: Meredith Nelson

 

In a refreshing change from the large, often overwhelming galleries in Chelsea, the brand-new, unassuming The Homefront Gallery can be found a stone’s throw away in Long Island City. Camped out in the trenches of artists’ studios and newly built, million dollar co-ops, The Homefront Gallery is a comparatively tiny space that offers a carefully edited and meticulously curated selection of work by local artists working on what is termed the “homefront” by the gallery’s owner, Crystal Kui. The “homefront” is described specifically as a place where we “design” our daily lives. And the works, like an omakase meal, are small in number, but each indicates a high level of aesthetic consideration, finesse and contemplation.

The current exhibition of Jennifer Williams’ work fits seamlessly into this mission. Commenting on the gentrification of her Lower East Side neighborhood, Williams finds aesthetic beauty in the construction materials that litter her community, indicating the shifting demographics and the neighborhood’s growing popularity. In Stalled, her series of photographs, Williams uses closed-in views and cut-off angles to take the quotidian familiarity out of painted plywood boards and construction barriers and emphasize instead the aesthetic appeal of their deeply saturated colors and textures, seen for example in yellow.

 

 
Jennifer Williams, yellow, 2009.

Image from http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/photobooth/2010/08/jennifer-williams.html.

 

Other works, such as building 2009, emphasize the passage of time, evolution and change, revealed here in the decay of the poster attached to the plywood board over several other older postings.

 
Jennifer Williams, building, 2009.

Image from http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/photobooth/2010/08/jennifer-williams.html.

 

In the gallery these photographs face flo#4, a much larger photocollage. Compiled of images of urban elements, traffic cones, construction signs and neon orange spray paint, the collage describe the space immediately outside the calm interior of the gallery. Humming and buzzing with dirt, noise, activity and flux, the collage brings the outside in all the while emphasizing the chaotic beauty of it all.

 

 

Jennifer Williams, flo#4, 2010.Image Courtesy The Homefront Gallery.

I highly recommend taking the trip out to Long Island City to visit The Homefront Gallery. It’s a refreshing change from the larger Manhattan-based galleries and a wonderful opportunity to see how local artists are interpreting and reacting to their NYC surroundings. Jennifer Williams’ show is a small sampling of interesting and engaging work that appeals to the viewer’s aesthetic sensibilities while commenting on something familiar to New York residents.

 

Jennifer Williams’ exhibition at The Homefront Gallery runs through October 2^nd

 

The Homefront Gallery

26-23 Jackson Avenue

Long Island City, NY 11101

Take the 7 to 45th Road- Court House Sq, the G to Court Sq; the E or M to 23rd Street Ely Avenue; or the N, R or W to Queensboro Plaza

Gallery Hours: Sat – Sun, 12-6

Exhibition Website:

http://www.thehomefrontgallery.com/2010/exhibition-grand-opening/

Read the New Yorker review of the exhibition at:

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/photobooth/2010/08/jennifer-williams.html.