Currents, at Nassau County Museum of Art’s (NCMA)

Roslyn, New York.- Currents, at Nassau County Museum of Art’s (NCMA) Contemporary Gallery through September 12, 2010, features the work of three artists: Jessica Jackson Hutchins, Benjamin Edwards and Tom Sanford. The exhibition is organized by Elaine Berger for NCMA’s Contemporary Collectors Circle.

Jessica Jackson Hutchins is a sculptor whose work is included in the 2010 Whitney Biennial. She has shown in many group and solo exhibitions in this country and the UK. Her work explores the relationships between people and objects and how they both form and inform each other (Artforum). Hutchins says of her work: “I use common and simple objects because they can act as nouns. Strung together, they resonate like catchy song lyrics: chair, bowl, pants. They are also weird together, and loving, too. Sometimes the materials look old or crappy and that gives the sculptures a sense of urgency. They have a ‘by any means necessary’ or punk sensibility. I don’t think the sculptures would be very interesting if they didn’t also possess disruptive qualities, if they weren’t tough and insistent. I’m not attached to dilapidation for its own sake. It’s just the way things look when they are really part of the world. They’re not slick and pristine.”

Benjamin Edwards has been exhibited widely throughout the New York area and other US cities. Working in oils, acrylics and digital inkjet, his paintings and drawings hold a mirror to contemporary society, reflecting it back as hallucinatory and visionary landscapes. He says: “I’ve always been interested in how high art and philosophy filter down to a mass, populist level.”  Writing in Artforum, critic Martha Schwendener said: “Benjamin Edwards works in the tradition of Piranesi, Etienne-Louis Boullée, and Archigram, creating two-dimensional images of fantasy architecture. But instead of prisons or space pods, Edwards’s touchstones are exurban subdivisions, the corporate landscape of big-box stores, surveillance, and-most significant-the computer.”

Tom Sanford paints vibrant representations of pop objects and celebrities. His work has been exhibited in New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo and Copenhagen. Some of his best-known works are representations of hip-hop artists. Discussing the painting in which Sanford transformed himself into rapper Tupac Shakur, Martha Brand said: “He grew up listening to hip-hop and worshipping rappers. And as an artist, he paints portraits of Tupac, Dr. Dre and Eminem in the style of Renaissance religious paintings, a mix of high and low that Sanford says is what hip-hop’s all about, deconstructing and redefining cultural icons. But Sanford wanted to go further and really mix it up by trying to become his favorite rap star, both physically and psychologically.”

About Nassau Country Museum

Nassau County Museum of Art is located at One Museum Drive (just off Northern Boulevard, Route 25A, two traffic lights west of Glen Cove Road) in Roslyn Harbor. Hours are 11 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. Docent-led tours of the exhibition are offered at 2 p.m. each day. Admission to the galleries in the Arnold & Joan Saltzman Fine Art Building is $10 for adults, $8 for seniors (62+) and $4 for students and children (4-12). Admission includes entrance to the Art Space for Children. Members are admitted free. There is a $2 parking fee on weekends (no charge to members). The Museum Shop is open during museum hours. Café Musée is open Tuesday to Sunday, 12 to 4 p.m.

Nassau County Museum of Art is chartered under the laws of New York State as a not-for-profit private educational institution and museum. A privately elected board of trustees is responsible for its governance. The museum is funded through income derived from admissions, parking, membership, special events and private and corporate donations as well as federal and state grants.

Call (516) 484-9337 for current exhibitions, events, days/times and directions or log onto nassaumuseum.org.