An artistic maverick, Neil Jenney is committed to exploring, and ultimately transcending, realism as both style and philosophy. Having designated his early work “Bad Painting” and his post-1970 output “Good Painting,” he challenges models of taste and subject matter while pursuing an idiosyncratic approach to depicting culture and place.
Jenney characterizes his current work as “painted sculpture,” and uses handmade frames to present crisp, high-contrast canvases. Providing an “architectural foreground” as well as—through stenciled captions—guides to title and setting, the frames situate the paintings as both objects and interpretations.
Linda Yablonsky has been writing about art and artists, as both critic and journalist, for the past thirty years. Her byline has appeared in The New York Times, Bloomberg, Palmer, W, Wallpaper, Elle Decor, among many others, and contributes the monthly New York Insider column to The Art Newspaper as well as reviews. She is also the author of The Story of Junk: A Novel, numerous essays for artist monographs and exhibition catalogues, and is currently at work on the first full biography of the artist Jeff Koons.
Neil Jenney Photo Credit: Debra Jenney
Linda Yablonsky Photo Credit: Grace Roselli for the Pandora’s BoxX Project