At Artifact Projects
By Phyllis Simone
Jennifer Leigh Harrison explores process and the unconscious as both unsettling and exhilarating forces using them to dismantle the barriers that obscure genuine perception and to open pathways for newly formed experiences. Particularly compelling in her large-scale paintings shown at Artifact Projects is the confidence with which she seizes opportunities to expand her visual language. Even her most delicate almost ghostly forms evolve into images rich with ambiguity and a quiet balanced harmony.
One might describe a kind of “golden crystallization” taking place—both within the artwork itself and in the mind of the viewer. The tactile quality of her surfaces draws attention yet it represents only one aspect of a broader intricate system. Colors and contours weave and wander in complex circuitous paths generating an energetic charge that surpasses initial impressions.Her artistic strength operates on two levels. First she possesses a subtle ability to project a sense of possibility onto the pictorial surface creating an enduring enigma—an abundant elusive quality that lies at the heart of powerful art.
Second she demonstrates a clear engagement with ambiguity inviting viewers to bridge the gap between her creative openness and their own “effort after meaning” borrowing a phrase from Ernst Gombrich.The visual language of her work unfolds as finite compositions that evoke infinite processes of transformation and metamorphosis. Harrison appears to intuitively merge diverse forms and colors suggesting a layered interplay of symbols and signs in flux. Her exploration of the boundary between the symbolic and the imaginary points toward a continuous transformation—where material traces dissolve into fluidity and re-emerge as imponderable.
Phyllis Simone is an art writer living and working in Manhattan.