McCaffrey Fine Art is proud to present Gallery Peace, a solo exhibition of new works by Jack Early. The show takes place in conjunction with WWJD, at Southfirst. An essay by Glenn O’Brien introduces both exhibitions. Gallery Peace and WWJD are on view from 7 September – 27 October, 2012 with opening receptions on Friday, September 7 from 5-7 at McCaffrey Fine Art and 6-8 at Southfirst.
In Gallery Peace, Tomorrow, a new song written by Early and recorded by the musicians Dean and Britta, evokes Apple Records’ “hit factory” pop and the optimism of the period 1969-1973. Thirteen free-standing cut-out nude sculptures depicting Yoko Ono, an American flag painting with a tie-dye ground, and a sculptural installation which imagines John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s bed-in as a shroud of Turin-like imprint, conjure the hopeful feelings from an era when war was over (if you wanted it to be.)
Southfirst exhibition WWJD features an 8.5’-tall illuminated Plexiglas cross, seven softsculpture clouds, a path of life-sized footprint floor sculptures and an original soundtrack composed and performed by the artist. While the gallery is painted entirely blue and features the image of Christ suffering on the cross, the blue is Benjamin Moore house paint’s ballroom blue, not Giotto’s ultramarine, and the body on the cross evokes Godspell, not Grünewald. This Jesus is more off-Broadway than Vatican. The title plays with the rhetorical question asked in response to an ethical dilemma; it is also an acronymic pun on the artist’s first name.