Bill Jenkins’ sculptures are carefully worked-out problems in which found objects and hand-fabricated elements are held together by a tenuous formal inertia, the simple mechanics of which appear to come easily undone. His chosen materials — a discarded air filter, a lightbulb, an oyster shell, a vent cover, a mattress frame — are remnants of a domestic economy. Flimsy, toxic, saved from the trash or collected after being dejected from it, the objects are no longer of practical importance, instead incarnated into an alternate system of value that is informed by the contact, use, and visibility of vernacular things.
Jenkins has had solo exhibitions at Jancar Jones, San Francisco and been included in group exhibitions at Laurel Gitlen and Feature Inc., New York; and The Suburban, Oak Park, IL, where he will also have a two-person exhibition with Erin Shirreff in June 2012. This is his first solo exhibition in New York.
New York City, NY; NYC