Join us for the opening reception on Tuesday, July 9th at 8 PM EST at the Arsham/Fieg Gallery in Kith Soho.

Jen Mann's body of work as a whole deals with the self in relation to our generation's obsession with social media and popular culture. She has developed multiple bodies of work layering these themes by creating medium to large oil paintings on canvas. She uses digital reference, and photos she takes herself, to create painted hyper-realistic worlds and portraits of people in otherworldly environments. She often works with color and saturation as an element that separates the images from reality and adds elements of “pop art” and “Instagram filter” to create the illusion of looking at the world through rose-colored glasses. Color is synonymous with emotions for her, and the extremely personal work is full of both color and emotion. Mann's work references popular culture and movies, and takes notes from memes, using text over top of work, and scribbles over photos as if done in snap chat or Instagram stories. She also has paintings made to look as if she has painted a film still from a movie, where there is subtitle text highlighting the dialogue of the characters depicted over the image. These film still paintings are of movies that do not exist. In technique and content, Mann's work is discussing the idea of reality, and the dissemination of self-identity in our post-internet culture.

Referencing clowns and masks Mann looks at how we hide or share our emotions in these new works which explore social anxiety. Unsettling and saccharine colored, these images depict an intangible disconnect from social intimacy. Inspired by emojis and social media 'Send pix' is a dark but comical look at modern communication.

For more information on the pieces on exhibit, please email Arsham/Fieg Gallery here