Spencer Sweeney
September 20 – October 25, 2008
Opening reception: Saturday, September 20th, 6-9pm
The Jack Hanley Gallery, San Francisco, is pleased to present a solo exhibition of the work of Spencer Sweeney. By assuming the roles of artist, club owner, and musician, Sweeney “builds a unique practice that falls intentionally between the cracks of any qualifiable genre. His explosively colorful collaged paintings and cartoonish drawings constitute one part of a larger body of work based on his persona. This places him within a tradition of artists, such as Martin Kippenberger, who, in cultivating outrageous personalities and shifting rapidly between artistic styles, sought an expanded room to maneuver, not otherwise afforded by the gallery system.” For his upcoming show, Spencer will exhibit a projected video along with recent paintings that resemble New York City’s heavily graffitied surfaces. With sections of the canvas blocked out by brightly saturated colors that transform into tangled images of popular culture, Sweeney conveys an intense sense of energy that coincides with his explosive persona.
Spencer Sweeney was born in 1973 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally, with recent shows at Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, New York, PS1 Contemporary Art Center, New York, and The Modern Institute in Glasgow, UK. In 2006 Sweeney was included in The Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. He currently lives and works in New York City.