Jess Perlitz
People Making People Sounds

November 7 – December 14, 2019

HOLDING Contemporary presents new sculptures and drawings by Jess Perlitz. People Making People Sounds opens with a reception on Thursday, November 7 from 6 – 8 pm, in conjunction with Portland’s First Thursday. The exhibit runs from November 7 through December 14 and gallery hours are noon – 5 pm, Thursday – Saturday. There will be a public conversation in conjunction with the exhibition on Sunday, December 8 at 11 am.

In People Making People Sounds, Jess Perlitz’ new series of drawings and human-scaled objects considers the idea of the body as a bag. Skin-like masks, wind-chime bones, and a rock with suspicious residue all situate the viewer in direct exchange with one’s own corporeal container.

Using traditional sculpture materials — paper, plaster, concrete, and steel — Perlitz reiterates a connection with the everyday. Tinged with humor and wit, People Making People Sounds‘ material explorations reveal the strength, absurdity, and vulnerability of the body.

Jess Perlitz makes work considering body and landscape and the ways in which we define and seek to recognize ourselves within it. Grappling with how space gets articulated, her projects take many forms—traversing performance, sculpture, and drawing. The work has appeared in a variety of venues such as playgrounds, fields, galleries, and museums, including the Institute for Contemporary Art (Philadelphia, PA),  Socrates Sculpture Park (Queens, NY), Cambridge Galleries (Cambridge, Ontario), and De Fabriek (The Netherlands). Born in Toronto, Canada, Jess is a graduate of Bard College, received her MFA from Tyler School of Art and clown training from the Manitoulin Center for Creation and Performance. Jess is currently based in Portland, Oregon where she is Associate Professor of Art and Head of Sculpture at Lewis & Clark College. Jess was recently named the 2018 Joan Shipley Fellow from the Oregon Arts Commission, a 2019 Hallie Ford Fellow from The Ford Family Foundation, and was an artist in residence in Omaha, NE at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art. Her project, Chorus, is currently installed at Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, PA as part of the museum’s ongoing artists installation series.

Photos by Mario Gallucci