Anna Kustera Gallery is pleased to present “Water, Liquor, Hair”, a solo exhibition of paintings by Julia Jacquette. Known for virtuoso technique and a fascination with media images, Jacquette makes paintings about wish fulfillment in a consumerist society. The artist utilizes images found on the internet, in TV programs, in movies, on the sides of buses, on the walls of subway stations, and most especially magazine ads to create her colorful close-ups. Like the advertisements from which the paintings arise, each work is enticing yet tinged with a flavor of anxiety in the manufactured envy it evokes.

By focusing on the hyper-realistic sheen of consumer goods in “Water, Liquor, Hair”—perfectly tussled blonde locks, alcoholic cocktails, private planes—the artist utilizes the act of painting in an attempt to grasp the ephemeral. More specifically, to contain the promises of photography within the language of painting. As the works get larger, they become more abstract, and each telescoped moment of “reality” however blurred or tangled, retains its intoxicating mysteries.

For her 2000 project for The Museum of Modern Art (NY) entitled Projects 69, Jacquette designed a series of paper products – including plates, cups and napkins – emblazoned with her images and suggestive texts which museum visitors were given to eat and drink from in the museum’s café. Connections arose between sex, food, liquid, perfume and our submersion in all types of desire.

Jacquette completed her MFA at Hunter College (NY) in 1992 and since the 1990s, has exhibited extensively throughout the United States and Europe. In 2004, a retrospective of her work took place at The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY. Her work is included in the permanent collections of prominent institutions, such as The Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and The Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design (RISD Museum), Providence, among others. This will be Jacquette’s first solo exhibition at the gallery, her ninth solo show in New York.

For additional information please contact the gallery at 212-989-0082 or visit our website, www.annakustera.com. Gallery Hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 11-6pm