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The square line: Jukkala and Rosenthal in Philadelphia

Clint Jukkala, “Loop,” 2008, oil on linen, 60 x 52″

 Clint Jukkala, “Mismatch,” 2009, oil on linen, 20×16″
Mia Rosenthal, “Cannes,” two-sided postcard drawing, 4� x 5-3/4�
 Mia Rosenthal, “Antoinette�s Stamp Collection: 100 Queen Stamps,” ink  and gouache on paper, 9-3/4″ x 9-3/4″

Tiger Strikes Asteroid in Philadelphia is a generous, artist-run/artist-curated exhibition space that connects the Philadelphia art scene to the the rest of the art world by showing the work of Philadelphia artists alongside work by artists from other towns–i.e. New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. This month, TSA presents paintings by out-of-towner  Clint Jukkala and drawings by local artist Mia Rosenthal. Here’s an excerpt from the essay TSA co-founder Timothy Gierschick wrote for the show.

“For Mia Rosenthal, her straightforwardly sweet simulacrums of sent and received postcards impart a secondary, more spiritually acute layer to an already powerful metaphor for those places we cannot go, cannot be, or are not � as well as those people who inhabit them, or are passing through before us. On the uncomfortable cusp of welcoming a new life – her child – Rosenthal found comfort in celebrating one recently-departed life, that of her uncle’s, by painstakingly reinterpreting the talisman of shared postcards � those small purchased icons of travel and exoticism; the skimmed-off leftovers of a life�s memory. The drawings’ mostly hatched and linear interpretation extend the sense of improbability and distance – while preserving the warmth….

“Clint Jukkala previously worked more with the positive � shakily digital renderings of top-heavy bouquet forms; or slowly branching, slow-motion fireworks. Recently though, Jukkala�s bouquets have dissipated and migrated to the edges, and suggest portals, or doorways; the promising rainbows building, enveloping and bordering, rather than blossoming or branching into bouquet or fountain forms. His bright lines quiver and undulate ever so slightly, but always manage to click into appropriate positions in time to allow us egress.

“Rosenthal�s approach is talisman, but clear; Jukkala�s more at-hand icons conversely are, ironically, more ambiguous: are we entering or exiting these doorways; these portals? But not unlike many of the color and square studies by Josef Albers, the spaces and ways through are infinitely commutable; universal; eternal. The essence really is the movement through � the process � rather than the direction. No matter what space or place our life is finding form within, a human yearns for a little of another � and we will continue to find talismans for that yearning…”

Mia Rosenthal lives in South Philadelphia, PA, and teaches at the  University of the Arts. Clint Jukkala lives in New Haven, CT, and is an assistant professor of painting/printmaking and Director of Undergraduate Studies in Art at Yale University.

Clint Jukkala & Mia Rosenthal,” Tiger Strikes Asteroid, Philadelphia, PA. Through June 26, 2010.

Related post:
Places to go

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