VOLTA-NY 2011
Invitational Contemporary Art Fair

Solo presentation of works by Jim Houser

March 3, 2011 through March 6, 2011

In booth #V6 of VOLTA NY 2011, Jonathan LeVine Gallery proudly presents new works by Philadelphia-based artist Jim Houser. Houser will incorporate a new series of paintings, collages and sculptures into a site-specific installation. Additionally, the artist will compose a score of original instrumental music to accompany the exhibition, complementing the tone and rhythm of the work.

Houser’s collages become visual poems through which he cathartically communicates his most private thoughts and emotions with surprising candor. By cataloging his experiences and feelings through a unique pictorial language, the artist creates his own brand of curative iconography. Houser’s signature aesthetic often mixes stylized figures, hand-drawn typography and geometric shapes, creating quilt-like collages in a cohesive color palette.

Houser layers acrylic on wood, fabric and found objects, blurring the lines between collage and sculpture. Once combined, it becomes clear that all of his works are associative and directly related. This deceptively dimensional quality is further highlighted when the pieces are assembled into one of the artist’s elaborate installations, adding to the complexity of each individual piece by emphasizing a greater inter-connectivity to the body of work as a whole.

ABOUT THE ARTIST
Jim Houser was born in 1973 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the city where he currently resides. He is a self-taught artist and an honorary member of the Philly-based artist collective Space1026. Houser’s installations create a mapping system, cataloguing his psychological states over the course of a particular period of time. His work explores the cadence of speech, science and science fiction, sickness and disease, plants and animals, time travel, ghosts, the art of children, secrets, radio, codes and code breaking, words that sound beautiful and mean something terrible, and words that sound horrible but mean something wonderful. Houser’s collages, paintings and installations have been exhibited in museums and galleries throughout the United States, Europe, Australia and Brazil. His work is included in the permanent collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Recently, Houser released a vinyl record of instrumental music composed to accompany his installations, the songs are currently available on iTunes.

ABOUT THE GALLERY
Jonathan LeVine Gallery exhibits a genre of work influenced by illustration, comic book art, graffiti, street art and pop culture imagery. We represent a mix of emerging and mid-career artists with an emphasis on cultivating new talent and creating an environment where artists can further develop their work. Since 2005, the first year established in New York, Jonathan LeVine Gallery has remained focused on maintaining its mission of community, and commitment to providing our artists with a nurturing arena for experimentation and discussion.

ABOUT VOLTA NY
VOLTA NY is an invitational show of solo artists’ projects and is the American incarnation of the successful young fair founded in Basel in 2005. VOLTA NY was conceived by art critic and fair director Amanda Coulson to continue the original mandate of a tightly-focused, boutique event that is a place for discovery. By putting the focus back on artists through exclusively featuring solo projects, VOLTA NY promotes a deep exploration of the work of its selected projects, an opportunity for discoveries that move beyond those afforded by a traditional art fair. While many fairs provide a broader overview, with more represented artists in each booth, visitors to VOLTA NY compare the experience to a more focused series of intense studio visits. A platform for challenging, often complimentary, sometimes competing ideas about contemporary art, the strictly solo format is what gives the New York fair its unique character. For further information, please visit : http://ny.voltashow.com/Jim-Houser.6729.0.html