January 15th, 2015 - March 14th, 2015

Closing Reception and Artist Talk

Saturday March 14th, 2015

from 3:00pm-5:00pm

In 2007, artist Jeanne Wilkinson began documenting the adventures of the Painted People, a Paleo-Postmodern migratory clan of former Barbie™, Ken™, G.I. Joe™ and their various companion animals. The clan has grown from the original six (featured in the “Western Walkabout” series) to now include children and many more creatures, coming from thrift shops, toy stores, Canal Street vendors, gifts from friends and street trash. Once in Wilkinson's studio their old identities disappear as they are painted white and then covered in random abstract-expressionist-style drips in a pared-down Piet Mondrian palette of red, yellow and blue. Each is individually marked but unmistakably one of the Painted People.

Their first adventure was the “Western Walkabout” – a series of unaltered photographs taken by Wilkinson’s son, photographer Andrew Keeley Yonda, on their trip from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. Subsequently the Painted People began to voyage virtually as she created digital collages and animations using Photoshop, After Effects and Garageband. In the "Night in the City" series, concrete and stone caverns turn into strange night places where streets become fluid streams, skies morph into oceans and webs of life, buildings harbor and dissolve into fantastic life-forms. In other series, the Painted People trek above and across an earth that reflects realms of premonition, celebration, environmental change, apocalyptic, and natural magic.

The exhibition “The Technicolor Travels of the Painted People” will include numerous representations of their various trips, and also a multi-screened video display of their mysterious adventures.