MARNA SHOPOFF

JONATHAN FERRARA GALLERY is proud to announce Usual Places, Unusual Spaces, the premiere solo exhibition of Indianapolis-based artist MARNA SHOPOFF. The exhibition will be on view from 29 July through 29 August 2015 with an opening reception on Saturday, 1 August from 6-9pm in conjunction with Whitney White Linen Night (an annual events which draws over 50,000 people to the New Orleans Arts District). For her debut at the gallery, Shopoff unveils her newest suite of abstract paintings. As a finalist of the 17th and 18th Annual NO DEAD ARTISTS: International Juried Exhibition, Shopoff is the third winner of the show’s grand prize, a featured solo-exhibition at JFG. Much like her paintings in the past two iterations of NDA, the artist’s new series of geometric abstraction becomes even more architectural as she continues her study of visually defining “place”, giving the viewer a sense of being able to walk into and inhabit the pictorial “space”.

Shopoff says of her work . . . Growing up in a small town, living in a house behind the drive-in restaurant that my parents owned, my perception of home became blurred at an early age. Spending so much time between public and private, I found that what I considered to be an intimate space was (and still is) a space shared by many. The idea of ‘home’ taps into the intimacy I have found within shared places. To me, these places become a bridge between inside and out, a passageway of self-reflection. My work is about exploring compositional, personal and experiential connections while creating an invitation for the viewer to do the same. Finding home in a composition, in the world, with one another; a place that we know with spaces always unfinished. My work becomes a metaphoric voice representing the temporality of my human condition, while teetering between the realms of public and private, intimacy and distance. I have come to understand that life is a mosaic of experiences that support and reflect each other in unanticipated ways. The foundation begins with the notion of an expected result but is subsequently adjusted as new experiences update my worldview. My work is responsive and intuitive, creating an interpretation of a place, a layered representation of it.

Indianapolis based artist, Marna Shopoff, blends contemporary with classical approaches to design and spatial relationships. Using her work as a vehicle to investigate the perceptual intimacy she finds within public spaces, Shopoff explores the idea of perception as a function of human experience, place and personal memory. Finding chaos, flux and structure within a composition, elements of representation are combined with architectural abstraction to create a visual a passageway for self-reflection. Her large-scale oil on canvas paintings question how art can become a place by its interaction with the environment and how the space can become the artwork.

Shopoff received her Bachelors in Fine Arts (2012) and Masters in Fine Arts (2014) from Herron School of Art and Design, Indianapolis, IN, where she currently works as an adjunct professor. A recipient of various honors and awards, she has most recently been announced as the 2014-2015 Stutz Arts Residency Winner (IN) and will be taking part in accompanying residencies across the US in 2015, including The Vermont Studio Center (VT) and Teton ArtLab (WY). Her work has been published in Studio Visit Magazine, Manifest and Blue Canvas. She is an active member of various local and national arts-based programs, and has exhibited work locally, nationally and internationally: solo, group, and collaborative.

For more information, press or sales inquiries please contact the gallery director Matthew Weldon Showman at 504.522.5471 or email matthew@jonathanferraragallery.com.

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Usual Places, Unusual Spaces

July 29 – August 29, 2015

press release ::: MARNA SHOPOFF --- 'Usual Places, Unusual Spaces'