School of Art Presents M.F.A. Thesis Exhibition With Jonathan Virginia Green: 'There Are Ghosts in the Machine'

Jonathan Green

Leather and Rubber by Jonathan Green

The School of Art in the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences is pleased to announce M.F.A. Thesis Exhibition by Jonathan Virginia Green: There are ghosts in the machine.

The exhibition will be held at Likewise Community, located off College Avenue in Fayetteville, April 4-10. All are invited to schedule an appointment with Green to view the exhibition and attend a special reception Friday, April 8, from 7-9 p.m.

There are ghosts in the machine is an exhibition of work that dares to dissolve the boundaries between the artist's physical body, intimate desires and paintings. Utilizing the erotics of leather lifestyles, the show consists of sculptural paintings that are rooted in sensual and transgressive desire. The materiality and physicality of paint are emphasized within the work to provoke a proprioceptive experience within the viewer. 

In his work, Green pushes the illusory qualities of the paint to perverse ends by working the canvas so that it resembles leather or vinyl. Other times the canvas substrate is replaced by paint itself. Paint is poured on a flat surface, left to dry, and then peeled up in sheets. The rubbery, skin-like quality of the dried paint resembles latex, another erotic material. 

Influences range from body horror classics by director David Cronenberg, or the transgressive attitude of Nine Inch Nails, to the writings of Audre Lorde and Georges Bataille on the power of eroticism. Modified by hardware such as chains, zippers and grommets, the paintings express the transformational potential of material embodiment. As objects of radical difference, they conflate desire, the body, performance and identity.

There are ghosts in the machine is not an exhibition inside the typical "white cube" of a gallery space. Instead, echoing the underground nature of leather activities, viewers descend into a parking garage where the paintings are suspended by chains. The public and private tension of the parking garage is a subterranean world where viewers can watch, play or cruise. 

"Not everyone is supposed to be comfortable," Green said. "Viewers should feel challenged. However, with an open mind, they might come to realize that there are depths to their own desires that have yet to be explored."

View There are ghosts in the machine April 4-10 at Likewise Community, 70 N. College Ave. A special reception will be Friday April 8 from 7-9 p.m.

To schedule a viewing appointment, please contact Jonathan Virginia Green by email at jonathanvirginiagreen@gmail.com or phone at 918-946-3121.

More info can be found here: https://members.likewise.community/events/4-apr-2022-there-re-ghosts-in-the-machine.