Rubber. Its uncanny approximation of flesh, its factory aesthetic, its art historical precedents have all made rubber an irresistible medium for Jil Weinstock. She use its ambivalent appeal to beguile the viewer with questions about identity, beauty, memory and artifact. First using it as nature entraps a fly in amber for the suspension of household objects in a celebration/critique of domesticity. Then for making vintage dresses float Ophelia-like in compositions revealing their seams, linings and zippers. And then for its ability to mold the shape of a shirt so convincingly it looks ready to wear except for its waxy sheen.
These textile sculptures hang on the wall much like vanity mirrors or portraits or groups of cast-rubber forms that have a familial relationship. The fabrics become sheer and sensuously folded when suspended in the rubber. The material's fleshy surface acknowledges the body while the strict geometric shape of the pieces shows her continuing exploration of formal and photographic composition. Confined by these formal shapes, the garments have fallen into folds that enhance the intimate impression of being worn, evoking the very skin that wrinkled them. The delicate and fragile garments are placed and arranged; carefully tucked , pinched and folded. In looking at these artifacts, the viewer feels like a nostalgic voyeur.
The amber color of the rubber is similar to that of sepia-toned photographs – precious mementos of lives no longer with us. This idea has become the departure point for Jil Weinstock's next body of work.
Represented by: Charles Cowles, New York; Walter Maciel Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Education: BFA, University of California Berkeley; MFA, University of California at Berkeley
Selected One-person exhibitions in order of most recent first: Walter Maciel Gallery, LA, CA, Byron Cohen, Kansas City, MI; The University of Alabama Sarah Moody Gallery of Art, Tuscaloosa, Alabama; Charles Cowles Gallery, New York, NY; Catherine Clark Gallery, San Francisco, CA; Davidson Contemporaries, Seattle, WA; Avram Gallery, Southampton College, Long Island Univ., Southampton, NY; Caren Golden Fine Art, NYC; Orari Galleria, Milan, Italy; Perimeter Editions, London, England; Frumkin/Duval Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; The Cultural Arts Center, Vienna, Austria; Novy Horizon Galerie, Prague, CzechoslovakiaSelected awards, honors and publications in order of the most recent first: McGrath Grant, ³Bottle: Contemporary Art and Vernacular Tradition", Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, (catalog production); ³Rubber! Fun, Fashion, Fetish², book by Janet Bloor, published by Thames & Hudson, work reproduced; Women¹s Visual Studies League Grant (catalog production); Whitney Museum of American Art, Youth Insights Pilot Program; SECA Arts nomination, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Polaroid Corporation Artist-In-Residence, Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA; Artist-In-Residence, Richmond Art Center, Richmond, CA
Selected Group Exhibitions in order of the most recent first: "Seams", Noyes Museum of Art, Oceanville, NJ,"Things Remain", Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY, "Pattern redefined", Walter Maciel Gallery, Los Angeles, CA,"Imaginative Qualities of Actual Things: 3-logy Triennial 2008, Price Tower Arts Center, Bartlesville, OK,"Reminiscence", Grounds for Sculpture, Trenton,"Undercover", The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, CT; "A Changing Fabric", Salina Art Center, Salina, Kansas; Hildur Bjarnadóttir, Nick Cave, Jessica Rankin, Jil Weinstock; "Sights", Arco Madrid, Spain; "Beyond Plastics", LIMN Gallery, San Francisco, CA; "A Summer Group", Charles Cowles, New York, NY; "Surfaced", Byron Cohen Gallery, Kansas City, MI; "Bottle: Contemporary Art and Vernacular Tradition", The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT; "Crits' Pix", Black & White Gallery, Brooklyn, NY; "Strata", Davidson Galleries, Seattle, WA; "Window Project" New Langton Arts, San Francisco, CA; "Art and Auction", San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose, CA; "Post-Systemic," Hunterdon Museum of Art, Clinton, NJ; "Picture Prone," Avram Gallery, Southampton College, Long Island Univ., Southampton
Selected Publications include: Art in America, ARTNews, Art Scene, Artweek, Fiberarts Magazine, Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Weekly, Metropolitan Home, The New Yorker, The New York Times, New York Magazine, San Francisco Bay Guardian, San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco Examiner - Magazine, SF Gate, San Francisco Tribune, San Francisco Weekly, Sculpture Magazine, The Seattle Times, Seattle Weekly, Southampton Press, Surface Magazine, Time Out, New York, World, Sculpture News.
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