"RECEPTION: THURSDAY, MARCH 28 @ 8 PMThe Mill Gallery is pleased to present the opening of two solo shows by Jensine Eckwall and Zach ErdmannFront Gallery: JENSINE ECKWALLWOLF STORIESJensine Eckwall was born in 1991 in Audubon, PA. After relocating several times throughout the eastern US and a short period in England, her family settled in Newtown, CT. She attends the School of Visual Arts, pursuing a bachelor's degree, with honors, in illustration. She has participated in group exhibitions at Sacred Gallery, Blackburn 20/20, Brecht Forum, and others. She was named the 2012 Zankel Scholar by the Society of Illustrators, NY. She lives in Brooklyn.For more information see www.jensineeckwall.comABOUT WOLF STORIES:""All stories are about wolves. All worth repeating, that is. Anything else is sentimental drivel. …Think about it. There's escaping from the wolves, fighting the wolves, capturing the wolves, taming the wolves. Being thrown to the wolves, or throwing others to the wolves so the wolves will eat them instead of you. Running with the wolf pack. Turning into a wolf. Best of all, turning into the head wolf. No other decent stories exist."" -Margaret Atwood, The Blind AssassinWhen I was a child, I obsessively loved the oldies. I loved that they told concrete stories. As I got older, my fascination with narrative in song grew, especially songs where people died: at first songs like 'Leader of the Pack,' and 'Last Kiss,"" and subsequently contemporary concept records and collections of Appalachian murder ballads. When I first started seriously drawing, Neko Case's morbid Americana record Fox Confessor Brings the Flood had just been released. The semblance of narrative, emotion, and imagery found its way into my work, and I took from the record the metaphor of wolves as madness and the fox as the soul. I built personal mythologies around these images, which grew in meaning along with my work and my amalgamation of experience. My narratives here are in prints, a medium which I've been exploring all angles of after carving linoleum working as an artist's assistant, helping teach etching with one of my mentors, Bruce Waldman, and working as a shop monitor at Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, one of the last vestiges of the legacy of traditional printmaking in New York City. Exhibited in this show are experiments with etching, silkscreen, block printing, and digital embroidery.————————————————————————————-Back Gallery:ZACH ERDMANNDREAM PHYSICSZachary Erdmann was raised in central New Jersey and graduated from The University of the Arts in 2013 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Illustration. Specializing in graphite, ink, watercolor, acrylic and oil paint, and digital media, he explores a surrealistic and expressionistic approach in his work; rife with symbolism, allusion and a meticulous attention to detail. Applying this sensibility to various and diverse scenarios, he accentuates and communicates their underlying essence and intangible ideals.""We as artists exist parallel to the zeitgeist. We are the ever-fluctuating culture we embody. There is no separation, however, between the now and it's predecessor. For our progress and evolution, we are derived in part by our atavism and superstition. We are bound to our nature and our heritage as inextricably as mind and body; as tree and soil. Our existence is a duality between the conscious and subconscious. The latter, I believe, gleans and recognizes the deeper truths that resound shudderingly within us. The revelations that persist; the ones that shape us.""For more information see: www.zacherdmann.comABOUT DREAM PHYSICS:Inspired by classical art and surrealism, he uses these influences in his striking and unique illustrations. Exploring such visual themes as distorted space, and jarring juxtapositions, he depicts a different way of seeing and experiencing a subject. On display will be a collection of posters and celebrity portraits. All pieces completed using traditional mixed media: watercolor, ink, acrylic and more."
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