November 04 - December 16, 2006

Drawings: Bruce Conner, Jacob El Hanani, Mark Lombardi

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 17, 2006

Bruce Conner, Jacob El Hanani, Mark Lombardi at Gallery Joe

Philadelphia, PA – It is with great pleasure that Gallery Joe presents a very special show of three major artists in the field of contemporary drawing. Drawings: Bruce Conner, Jacob El Hanani, Mark Lombardi opens on Saturday, November 4 and continues through December 16, 2006.

Last winter the Whitney Museum of American Art produced an exhibition of drawings entitled Building and Breaking the Grid. After seeing the exhibit, I was inspired to curate a show taking a closer look at three of the artists in the exhibition. Drawings includes over fifteen works, five or more from each artist.

Bruce Conner, known for his found-object assemblage sculptures in the 50’s and 60’s, began doing a series of drawings made from inkblots in the 70’s. This series has since spanned a period of over 30 years. Included in the show are inkblot drawings from the 1990’s.

Conner’s work is in the collections of over forty museums in the US and abroad including the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Guggenheim Museum, NY, the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. He shows regularly with the Michael Kohn Gallery in Los Angeles, Paule Anglim in San Francisco, and Barbara Gladstone in NY. Drawings is Bruce Conner’s first show at Gallery Joe.

Jacob El Hanani, a tireless and meticulous mark maker will show several large drawings. His works are composed of thousands of tiny lines or letters, which from a few feet away read as soft gray rectangles. El Hanani’s work was in several exhibitions this Fall, including two shows at the Museum of Modern Art, NY, Against the Grain: Contemporary Art form the Edward R. Broida Collection and Transforming Chronologies: An Atlas of Drawings, Part Two. His drawings are in numerous public collections including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, and The British Museum, London. This is El Hanani’s third show at Gallery Joe.

Mark Lombardi came to prominence in the late 90’s for his diagrammatic drawings of financial and political scandals. Described as a conceptual artist with a passion for news, Lombardi created his elaborate flowcharts distilled from sources as varied as The New York Times, legal documents and the internet. The drawings in this exhibition include such players as Roberto Calvi & the Vatican Bank, Gerry Bull & Amscor, Ron Rewald & Bishop Baldwin, and Clinton, Lippo & COSCO. The works range from a simple study from his sketchbook to a 45 inch fully realized drawing.

Following his death in 2000, Lombardi’s drawings have been the subject of two traveling exhibitions. Global Networks, seen at The Drawing Center, NY in 2003, traveled extensively in the US through 2005. Keeping Secrets, organized by the Hayward Museum in London is traveling in Europe through 2007. In addition to Building and Breaking the Grid mentioned above, Lombardi’s work was also included in Down By Law at the Whitney last year. This is Lombardi’s third show with Gallery Joe.

Drawings: Bruce Conner, Jacob El Hanani, Mark Lombardi opens on November 4 and continues through December 16, 2006. There will be an opening reception on November 4 from 4 – 6 pm. Regular gallery hours are Wednesday through Saturday 12 - 5:30, other days by appointment. For additional information, contact Becky Kerlin, 215.592.7752, FAX 215.238.6923, mail@galleryjoe.com, www.galleryjoe.com.