Jill Musnicki: Invertebrates

From October 6 through November 13, 2005, The Drawing Room in East Hampton is pleased to present the first one-person exhibition on the East End for Jill Musnicki.

Jill Musnicki’s small panels and larger oil paintings expand upon the exploration of bees and other insects that she began several years ago. Here she investigates jellyfish from remote corners of the world. Like her earlier paintings of insects that seem to hover, emerge and recede into the dark atmospheric grounds they are painted on, Musnicki’s jellyfish are painted against rich blues and nearly black backgrounds. Her technique of working wet paint on wet produces diffused effects where figure and ground are nearly inseparable. This approach seems perfectly suited to evoke the translucency of the jellyfish body in motion, in some areas transparent and in others highlighted by striking reds and oranges against the marine water they inhabit. These surprisingly jewel-like paintings belie their stinging subjects and strike us as ravishing, fresh formal explorations of color, form and motion.

 See below for full press release and selected works.