Jody Medich

I have a chair drawing at Shattered, the 6th Fall National Juried Exhibition at MarinMOCA. This year was curated by Kenneth Baker, Art Critic for the San Francisco Chronicle.

August 20-September 25, 2011
Reception: August 20 5-7 p.m.

Presentation by Kenneth Baker about the “Shattered” theme and his selections for the exhibition, Saturday, August 20, 4-5pm

Come join me!

http://www.marinmoca.org/index.htm

John Casey at “if you can’t make it good, make it big” has featured my work in the review of this month’s Art Murmur. Thanks John! Check out what he had to say…

This spring, a couple of my chair drawings will be included in two Juried shows.

The first is called “Art of the Line” was juried by Elizabeth Sher at the Sebastopol Center for the Arts. The work is on display through March 19, 2011. In addition to participating in this show, I was awarded a Merit Prize for one of the drawings. You can find out more about the show here.

The second starts April 8 and runs through May 15, 2011 at Sanchez Art Center in Pacifica. This show was juried by Alison Gass, Assistant Curator, Painting and Sculpture, SFMOMA. The show is called Arts on Fire XV Juried Exhibition. You can check out their website for more information.

6. Warehouse 416, 416 26th Street, (510) 352-5703

Two Oakland artists, Jody Medich and Megan Murray, make up the show here called Transplant. Medich is the star here, presenting works from two of her projects, Grandma and Detroit. Her Detroit works hyper-realistic paintings with an abstract twist, inspired by the wilds of the Michigan city. Pieces depicting rundown houses and decaying possessions abandoned by their owners are particularly moving. Opening reception from 6-10 pm.

In addition to paintings from my series Detroit, throughout the Opening of TRANSPLANT I will be creating work for my series Grandma, in which I seek to record the marks I learned as a young child, working side by side with my Grandma in her daily chores. It is my attempt to have a conversation with her working methods. Throughout the evening, I will be creating drawings with various washboards and a basin then hanging the drawings to dry.

Here is the Artist Statement for this work:
This work is inspired by Alice Walker’s In Her Mother’s Gardens. Walker’s essay focuses on the way Black women harbored their creativity in spite of the obstacles they faced. I thought of my Grandmother, Julian Magyar. She was born in 1910 on the border of Austria/Hungary. She lived through two World Wars and Nazi Occupation. She endured more than any person should experience but yet somehow, she survived.

By the time I met her, she was already in her mid-60s and continued to live as if she were in Hungary. As a young child, I spent nearly every day with her. She grew our fruits and vegetables. In fact, she made all of our food from scratch…I was never allowed to eat from a can or box. She made our blankets and pillows. She made our clothes. She made our knits. She mended anything fixable. She washed our clothes by hand and hung them out to dry. And I did these things next to her, in miniature fashion, learning the skills necessary to be a woman. I learned these gestures through mimicry.

In seeking the source of my own creative voice, I recognize how important this experience was to my method of working. The quiet creativity of these seemingly menial tasks inform my comfort in repetitive mark making and focus on detail. This series records the marks made by her activity, and by extension, my activity at a young age.

Exhibition Details: “Transplant: Jody Medich and Megan Murray” will be open from November 5 – 28, 2010 at Warehouse 416, 416 26th street between Telegraph and Broadway in Oakland. Gallery hours are Thursday – Saturday from 1 – 6 pm and by appointment.

Please join me at Warehouse416 for the artist reception during the Oakland Art Murmur on November 5th from 6-10pm. The show runs til November 28th with a closing reception that day from 1-6pm. Warehouse416 is located at 416 26th street between Broadway and Telegraph in Oakland, CA.

I will be doing a performance throughout the opening from my series Grandma. Paintings from my series Detroit will be on view throughout the duration of the show.