February 5th, 2004 - March 19th, 2004

Jane South's work playfully traverses the boundaries between painting and drawing, sculpture and architecture. She uses paper as a sculptural material that she paints before incorporating individual pieces into large-scale wall installations.

These often sprawling constructions feature motifs and elements drawn from an imaginary lexicon of architectural and industrial components. The intricate shadows that her pieces cast become, in turn, 2D elements that further promote confusion as to what is flat and what is solid.

For her second solo show at Spencer Brownstone Gallery, South extends the structural anti-rationale of her work toward our Richard Gluckman-designed gallery. A series of new pieces assembled on site improvise, off the existing space, a riotous collection of inoperative air vents, towers, 'steel' frames, and cantilevered platforms.

South's work enacts a pantomime of functionality. The fragility of her paper forms has a contagious effect on their surroundings, always extending their inherent vulnerability toward the space where they are sited. Her installations remind us of the ultimate contingency, temporality, and crazy vanity of all architectural forms.

Jane South was born in Manchester, England and has been based in the United States since completing an MFA at the University of North Carolina in 1997. She has had solo exhibitions at the Nassauischer Kunstverein, Wiesbaden, Germany (2003); Mass MoCA, North Adams, MA (2002) and Spencer Brownstone Gallery (2002). Recent group exhibitions include 'Bits and Pieces' at Dumbo Art Center, Brooklyn; 'Perforations', McKenzie Fine Art, New York; 'Paper Chase', Müller De Chiara, Berlin, Germany; 'Art on Paper', Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, North Carolina; and '12 Views' at The Drawing Center, NY.

Check out images of Jane's opening night here. And installation shots of the show here.