AMY BRENER’S RADIANT, SPECIAL PURPOSE VESSELS

In “Pinnacles”, at Jack Barrett Gallery, Amy Brener’s soulful, additive, and media-blurring practice is exercised to maximum effect in this glowing exhibition.  My advice to the viewer walking into this space is don’t rush.  Let these charged vessels, “Omni-Kits” and “Flexi-Shields”, as Brener calls them, lure you to their wonderfully intricate and colorful surfaces, here embedded with varying everyday objects and materials, as well as casts of her late father’s face.  

The longer you stay in this chapel-like installation, the sooner you will feel the radiating power of these individual monochromed vessels as they lead to the central work, aptly titled, “Pinnacle”.  In contrast to the other special purpose vessels, “Pinnacle”, which can operate as a stand-in for the body, is bursting with a plethora of different colors, appearing splashed or cobbled together with a sophisticated sense of abandon.  Not only is this a wonderful moment of formal and virtuosic release, it can also be felt as a spiritual one as well.  

As artists continue to work through the process of meaning-making in the endless wake of the pandemic, they are also reminding us of the powerful set of actions, or seemingly ritualistic experiences, that are within our reach.  Experiences that can be intensely felt and are intensely human, of which Amy Brener’s, “Pinnacles”, is a standout example.

“Pinnacles” ends today, Saturday, February 19th.  Don’t miss it!

—Steve Rivera

02.19.22