Johansson Projects presents a solo exploration by Jennie Ottinger, a delicate and haunting display of the familiar suspects stripped of their familiarity. From her ballerina lineups to her team of surgeons, Ottinger's characters contain all the parts in place, yet a lurking trace of disorientation lingers in the way of recognition or comfort. The subjects are more skeletons of flesh than human beings. A crafted impossibility echoes throughout Ottinger's presentation of her pieces in a new kind of narrative network: a dissonant collective instead of a rigid unfurling of cause-and-effect. Ottinger confronts viewers with storybook pages tossed into the wind, forming links between strangers in strange places that transcend conventional story logic. Her cast of fictional characters is conjured from a medley of nonfictional materials– newspapers, textbooks, and photo archives-and then freed from any storyline to frolic in a storyweb. Every moment of Ottinger's dripping portraits summons a bitter longing to find a home in the imaginary ideals of the happily ever after. While stories often take great liberties to fill in the blanks, Ottinger's mythical portraits employ the ruse of familiarity as a vehicle and a trap, exposing the blank spaces between body parts and storybook pages.
Jennie Ottinger received a BFA from California College of Arts and Crafts as well as a BA in Art History from University of the Pacific, Stockton. She later graduated from Mills College in Oakland with an MFA. Her work has been featured in exhibitions in Los Angeles, Dallas, San Francisco and New York.