Gina Pearlin: on edge

Jack Fischer Gallery is pleased to present on edge by Gina Pearlin. This exhibition marks Pearlin’s third solo show with the gallery as well as her first showing at our Minnesota Street Project space.

Pearlin’s paintings have all the trademarks of pared down Brutalist architecture. I am reminded of what I imagined East Germany and Russia looked like in my nightmarish dreams that were always in black, white and gray. Her paintings are peopled with the listeners, watchers, and those that are encased in what seem to be prisons. They appear to be waiting for the glimmers of a sky that might bring… …? except we have forgotten what it is we are waiting for or who we are looking at. The faces that are in her work peer out as if lost in thought. We have no idea of what they are thinking about other than perhaps escape. We wonder at what the rest of their bodies look like. Are they wearing dark gray identical suits, male and female alike? We are being watched by the watched as we watch the watchers, a most perfect paranoia, antennas wherever we look.

“I think of my paintings as un-interpreted dreams that metaphorically reflect the undercurrents of my thoughts and feelings. My process is to discover and develop the images that feel meaningful to me: images that intrigue me that I want to get to know better. Lately, the motifs I return to are buildings and industrial structures, birds, train tracks, faces in windows, things attached to wheels. Source materials include photographic images, miniature models, paper constructions and my imagination. I am always on the lookout for found surfaces to paint on (book covers, metal signs, old paper) with words, colors, or markings that inspire and/or add to the imagery.” - Gina Pearlin