Jehra Patrick explores visualizing history through space

In Lorna Simpson - Simpson, Medtronic Gallery, Patrick depicts the Medtronic Gallery in the Walker, which housed a show by Simpson in 2010 (the museum has a longstanding relationship with the photographer and conceptual artist). In Patrick's painting, there is no artwork on the walls, but there is an indication of a projection screen, blazing white against a blue wall. A partial wall, with different color stripes, intersects two rooms of the gallery, creating an optical illusion as it disappears into thin air. The painting doesn't reflect the spirit of Simpson's work, but rather the feeling of the room itself. Patrick takes the shapes and architecture of the space to create a work that almost becomes an abstract minimalist painting.

Patrick also draws from "Heart of Darkness: Kai Althoff, Ellen Gallagher and Edgar Cleijne, Thomas Hirschhorn," a 2006 exhibition at the Walker that explored ideas from Joseph Conrad's famous novel. In these two pieces, the notion of expansion -- and even imperialism -- creep into the paintings. Heart of Darkness - Althoff, Gallery 4, for example, depicts a space that is being painted red, but as the color seeps in indiscriminately along the walls and doorways, it is as if the room is bleeding from some great well above. Heart of Darkness - Hirshhorn, Gallery 6 depicts a maze of construction posts tipped at all angles as if it were Conrad's jungle, impenetrable and personifying the depths of humanity's dark fantasies (although ironically, the structure is pink). 

"New Museal" also contains several "re-photographs," which Patrick explains in her notes are created by taking photocopies of source material from mid-century art exhibitions and scanning, cropping, and editing them, using "neo-ready-mades" to re-appropriate art from the 1980s. For example, a computer chair, a white post, and a houseplant become a triangle composition in Joseph Cornell, 1953 with an odd shadow lurking near the top of the photograph, or random chair is presented underneath an old school radiator in Lowenthall Collection, 1952, View 2. The works then become a non-linear genealogy of art history, which is in itself a work of art. 

On a certain level, it probably helps to have some background in the many references that Patrick makes in the series (or at least access to Wikipedia on a mobile device). In many ways, she seems to be speaking to other artists, or at least those that might have some degree of familiarity her subject matter. On the other hand, the work can be appreciated in and of themselves. The artist has an eye for dynamic use of color, structure, and movement that are satisfying, even if you don't know how she came to the final image.