(New Orleans, LA) FERRARA SHOWMAN GALLERY is proud to present The Space Between Earth and Sky, the premiere solo exhibition of Knoxville-based artist Jered Sprecher. Following his gallery debut in the group exhibition Re:Representation (Part II) curated by Dan Cameron – an official satellite exhibition of Prospect 5 Triennial – Sprecher has continued working with the gallery since 2021. Offering a more in-depth look into Sprecher’s studio practice, the exhibition unveils twelve new and recent paintings; an extension of the artist’s characteristic gridded, landscape style and investigation of the interaction between the natural and the technological environment. The Space Between Earth and Sky will be on view from 28 May through 13 July 2024 with an opening reception on Saturday 1 June coinciding with the Arts District of New Orleans’ (ADNO) monthly First Saturday Gallery Openings from 5 – 9 PM.

Sprecher discusses his latest work . . . 

Embrace the noise.
 
Each time we step outside, there is a supernatural poetry happening all around us. Trees and plants slowly, very slowly, exploding up into the sky, while roots delve into the depths of the soil. Life is bursting forth all around. To take in all this information is indeed immense, overwhelming.
 
Each painting is filled with small epiphanies, AI, compost, glints of light, dark soil, glowing screens, sheets of glass, impasto, leaves, petals. They are paintings, an old tactile technology, made as the android dreams of sheep.
 
They are about perception that slips away
 
They are about joy and pain.
 
They are about life and death.
 
They are elegant and rugged.
 
They are about seeing through a dark glass, encountering a reflection, seeing two worlds at once.
 
Things blossom and wilt, blossom and wilt, blossom and wilt, little details in a painting that pierce the heart.

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I make paintings, drawings, and installations that abstract the landscape, investigating the precarious relationship between nature and technology. These works wrestle with the beauty and complexity of the environment and how we as humans engage with the world, both directly and indirectly mediated through digital tools. I hunt and gather images of flowers, thick forests, sun-dappled foliage, seeking images that evoke wonder, depicting natural beauty and the immensity of the world. As I paint, I interpret these images through visual filters that emerge out of our technology. In the paintings, I weave together multiple images creating a technologically abstract tapestry of natural forms, evoking both beauty and trepidation. The underlying grid in the paintings pushes and pulls at the imagery, as flowers and forms emerge and are pulled back into the flickering tangle. Here the painting’s highly touched surface evokes glowing digital screens while remembering sunlight’s gentle caress. 

JERED SPRECHER has exhibited at The Drawing Center, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Des Moines Art Center, Hunter Museum, Asheville Art Museum, and Espai d'art Contemporani de Castelló. He has had solo exhibitions at Jeff Bailey Gallery, New York; Gallery 16, San Francisco; Stephen Zevitas Gallery, Boston; Kinkead Contemporary, Los Angeles; Whitespace, Atlanta; and the Knoxville Museum of Art. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Bailey Opportunity Grant, and a Tennessee Arts Commission Individual Artist Fellowship. Sprecher has been awarded residencies at the Marie Walsh Sharpe Foundation, the Chinati Foundation, The American Academy in Rome, and the Irish Museum of Modern Art. He received his BA from Concordia University and his MFA from The University of Iowa. He is a Professor in the School of Art at the University of Tennessee. He lives and works in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Jered Sprecher wishes to thank the University of Tennessee School of Art, College of Arts & Sciences, and the Office of Research & Innovation for their generous support

For more information, press or sales inquiries please contact Gallery Director Matthew Weldon Showman at 504.343.6827 or matthew@ferrarashowman.com. Please join the conversation with FSG on Facebook (@FerraraShowmanGallery), Twitter (@FerraraShowman), and Instagram (@FerraraShowmanGallery) via the hashtags: #JeredSprecher, #FerraraShowmanGallery, and #ArtsDistrictNewOrleans.