Oil paintings by Jennifer Cox on display at Perspective Gallery
"Consecution: Old and New Paintings by Jennifer Cox" will be on display May 1 through May 30 at the Perspective Gallery, second floor Squires Student Center, Virginia Tech. An opening reception will be held in the Perspective Gallery Friday, May 1 from 5 to 7 p.m. The university community and public are invited to attend.
“Consecution” is defined as a following or sequel; a train of reasoning; logical sequence; succession — in this instance, the end of one series of paintings and the beginning of the next. Cox’s lush, evocative oils capture a personal epiphany in paint and resonate with spirituality. Her love of the interaction of color, surface, and composition in a painting, and her mastery of her medium, allows her to translate closely observed nature into sensuous beauty, no matter how unexpected or prosaic the subject.
Though Cox’s art defies easy categorization, her work strikes some familiar chords, bringing to mind the spirituality of Arthur Dove and Albert Pinkham-Ryder, the psychological intensity of Frieda Kahlo, and the joyful use of pigment and colors of Wayne Thiebaud. She identifies with writers Jorge Amado and Gabriel Garcia Marquez in whose work the physical and metaphysical worlds mingle and dissolve, and Carl Jung and his archetypical explorations.
Cox’s work is deeply personal, yet has a universal appeal that leaves viewers thoughtful, intrigued, and often deeply moved. “These ostensibly narrative paintings are often autobiographical, but not literally so, and symbolic, but not specifically so,” said Cox. “My paintings are a context for interpreting my experience of reality on a metaphysical level and are interpreted empathetically and intuitively, not merely conceptually. The viewer is encouraged to find his or her own meaning, bringing his own experience and psyche to the process of interpretation.”
A native of Southwest, Va. and current resident of Lexington, Va., Cox was educated at Virginia Commonwealth University and Bennington College. She has exhibited regionally and twice was a part of the Korean and American International Exchange Exhibitionat the Daegu Art and Cultural Center in Daegu, South Korea. More information can be found at her website.
University Unions and Student Activities, a unit within the Division of Student Affairs at Virginia Tech, is sponsoring Consecution: Old and New Paintings by Jennifer Cox. For more information, contact University Unions and Student Activities Art Programs Coordinator Mary Tartaro at (540) 231-4053. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, noon to 10 p.m.
