The Hothouse
Artist Jen Mazza

On view October 28, 2010 through January 8, 2011
Public Program: Saturday, November 13, 2-4pm. Join Victor L. Davson for a conversation with Jen Mazza on her new series of paintings.
Reception: Thursday, November 18, 6:00-9:00pm


Jen Mazza's solo exhibition is presented as part of the EmergeNEXT series and is the third opportunity for an Aljira Emerge alumni dedicated project space. Conceived as an installation, Mazza presents The Hothouse, a new series of paintings that reveals a fresh look of a familiar subject matter—flowers. In a departure from her earlier figurative work—in your face, often fragmented, and sometimes gory images—the new work shares the same sensational painterly quality to depict careful renderings of the floral subject.

The installation's green painted walls with hand drawn architectural elements provide a domestic realm for the flowers. The title The Hothouse refers to a greenhouse where the growth of plants is priority; or the "hothouse flower," one that cannot grow under natural conditions; or a person with a fragile, delicate disposition in need of coddling or protection such as the flower. Here The Hothouse also alludes to the artist studio where one germinates not plants but ideas.

For Mazza the room effect, as the subject, relates to the passage of time. Taking inspiration from the theme of the EmergeNEXT series—which, by re-presenting Emerge artists further along in their careers serves to mark the passage of time and to showcase their progress and development as artists—the artist introduces a "moving image" for an explicit statement about the passage of time.