JERED SPRECHER: Between the Ribs
November 1 - December 20, 2024
Public reception: Friday, November 1, 5:30 – 8 pm
Sprecher has always been interested in the active and mercurial space between abstraction and representation. The fourteen paintings that constitute Between the Ribs arise from a sensitive processing of specific visual information. In them, images of sun-dappled foliage, abundant forests and other flora pixelate and then reform across the picture plane. Sprecher teases the viewer, offering us natural forms that are recognizable only to pull them back into the abstract matrix of his paintings.
Fragmented light emanates from the surfaces like a backlit screen, or the sun flickering between branches. Sprecher uses these bits of everyday beauty to tap into an innate biophilia, yearning to experience these natural elements in a world processed through technology. Here, instead of a binary code, these elements are noted in pulverized pigment suspended in oil.
In a world of constant stimulation, Sprecher confronts the speed at which we consume and experience information. In his technological ecology, nature contradicts all expedited timelines. Sprecher welcomes these moments that break through the constant current of time. This exhibition serves as an invitation to flow into the cracks– to feel the life between the ribs
JERED SPRECHER (B. 1976 Lincoln, NE) lives and works in Knoxville, TN. Sprecher is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and has exhibited with The Drawing Center (New York, NY), Irish Museum of Modern Art (Dublin, Ireland), Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art (Overland Park, KS), Brooklyn Academy of Music (Brooklyn, NY), Des Moines Art Center (Des Moines, IA), Hunter Museum of American Art (Chattanooga, TN), Asheville Art Museum (Asheville, NC), Espai d'art Contemporani de Castelló (Castelló, Spain), and The Suburban (Milwaukee, WI). His solo exhibitions include the Knoxville Museum of Art (Knoxville, TN), Jeff Bailey Gallery (New York, NY), Gallery 16 (San Francisco, CA), Kinkead Contemporary (Los Angeles, CA), Whitespace (Atlanta, GA), Ferrara Showman (New Orleans, LA), and Steven Zevitas Gallery (Boston, MA). He has had residencies at the Marie Walsh Sharpe Foundation, the Chinati Foundation, The American Academy in Rome, and the Irish Museum of Modern Art. He completed his MFA at The University of lowa. He is a Professor at the University of Tennessee and lives and works in Knoxville, Tennessee.