QuintGallery.com

Quint Contemporary Art (QCA) is very pleased to announce a solo exhibition of paintings and sculpture by Jean Lowe. This is the seventh solo exhibition for Lowe at QCA. The exhibition will open with a public reception on Saturday, April 21st from 6 to 8 PM.

Lowe’s exhibition is a mix of retail therapy and fairytale visions combined to create abrupt and fascinating interiors in her newest paintings and sculptures. Painted putti and gaudy Baroque interiors house a foreground of consumer products like those found at 99 cent stores, Walmart, Big Lots, thrift stores and flea markets. A trip Lowe took to Austria, Germany and Czechoslovakia informed the Baroque and Rococo interiors used in the paintings.

These whimsical interiors are painted with a loose brushstroke that is typical of Lowe’s painterly hand. The images are detailed but a close look reveal’s a blurred focus, their components melded seemingly together in a witty commentary on commercialism and extravagance. In a recent article for San Diego Home/Garden, Lowe said, “Being too obvious about my position can just be a turn-off, but humor and approaching things obliquely I think opens an avenue for conversation.”

Artist Jean Lowe has a knack for work that’s laugh-out-loud witty, from her wordplay-based papier-máché books to her more recent series of large-scale paintings that mash-up over-the-top Old World interiors and the jumbled aisles of big-box retail stores.
I’m poking pretty hard fun at our society’s self-absorption and consumerism,” Lowe says, stepping into the large metal barn that serves as her studio at the Encinitas home she shares with her husband, artist and UCSD Prof Kim MacConnel, and their fluffy cockapoo, Ceci.
Last month, the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego acquired a sculpture by Jean Lowe for its permanent collection. “Jean Lowe’s work reflects the wit of California Conceptualism even as it aligns with other historical references, such as pop art and minimalism,” says MCASD Director Hugh Davies.
In April, she’ll be back at Quint Contemporary Art for a solo show, a follow-up to her crowd pleasing pop-up shop for the gallery at last year’s San Diego Art Fair, where she also exhibited her paintings. “And then I’ll take a breather,” she says with a hopeful smile.
Lowe–who is 6 feet, 3 inches tall and effortlessly lovely–slices open a box containing some of the goods she peddled at her “Discount Barn,” a concept she first came up with about a year ago.

Quint Contemporary Art will be participating in this year’s ART SAN DIEGO | Contemporary Art Fair.

Come by and visit us at booth 55 where artist Jean Lowe will ‘open’ a fully operational art/product marketplace, wherein visitors may purchase editioned and unique items, all hand made by the artist. These products will be priced to “SELL, SELL, SELL” with SOMETHING FOR EVERYBODY. Many of the products for sale in this temporary gallery-store mimic those products depicted in the artists paintings: packaged cookies, books, boxed cereal and other banal goods, made from enamel and cardboard or ceramic. Also on display will be new paintings by the artist.

For ticketing information and to receive free Gallery Guest tickets click HERE.

September 1 – 4, 2011
Hilton San Diego Bayfront San Diego, CA