Verdant Plunderland
“Our human tragedy is that we are unable to comprehend our experience, it slips through our fingers, we can’t hold on to it, and the more time passes, the harder it gets…My father said that the natural world gave us explanations to compensate for the meanings we could not grasp. The slant of the cold sunlight on a winter pine, the music of water, an oar cutting the lake and the flight of birds, the mountains’ nobility, the silence of the silence. We are given life but must accept that it is unattainable and rejoice in what can be held in the eye, the memory, the mind.” -Salman Rushdie
MIAMI, FL—Mindy Solomon Gallery is pleased to present in the gallery’s Project Space, Jenna Efrein. Jenna mimics the beauty of the Everglades in her installation ‘Verdant Plunderland,’ suggesting issues of ownership and deterioration. The exhibition will be on view February 6th through March 19th, 2016 at Mindy Solomon Gallery’s location in Little River, 8397 NE 2nd Avenue, Miami. An Opening Reception with the artist will take place Saturday, February 6th, from 7-9pm at the gallery.
Jenna Efrein’s Verdant Plunderland is an installation representing the indigenous South Florida landscape of marshlands and swamp. Predominant materials are farmed from the waste of local consumption. Ironically, South Florida was considered an uninhabitable wasteland before settlement. But through efforts of dredging, draining, and genocide South Florida became an attractive vacation, retirement, and rejuvenation location. Jenna Efrein up-cycles materials to mimic the beauty of the Everglades.
Typically, Efrein’s work falls into the figurative and psychological realm. New to South Florida and a lover of nature, she has found herself investigating her surroundings past and present. Though no human forms can be seen in this installation, the marks of their hands are found everywhere.
About Jenna Efrein
JENNA EFREIN grew up in Brooklyn, New York and moved to Miami most recently from Philadelphia. She received her MFA from Alfred University School of Art and Design in Sculpture/Dimensional Studies. As a multimedia artist, she has participated in a variety of group shows predominantly in the northeast. She moved to Miami in 2014 to be a Lecturer in the Art and Art History, Sculpture department. This is her first show in Miami.
