FOR 9/14

‘JAMES PROSEK: LIFE & DEATH’ AT ALDRICH MUSEUM SEPT 16

avv/gs set 8/27 #710265

RIDGEFIELD, CONN. — The latest work of Connecticut artist James Prosek, “James Prosek: Life & Death — A Visual Taxonomy,” will debut at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum September 16. The timely exhibition falls during the 300th anniversary year of the birth of Carl Linnaeus, the father of modern taxonomy, the system of naming nature still in use today. The exhibit will be on view through June 8.

Prosek explains, “‘Life & Death: A Visual Taxonomy’ is in part a celebration and examination of Linnaeus’s system.” Coincidentally, Prosek and Linnaeus share the same birthday, May 23.

The exhibition, curated by Aldrich director Harry Philbrick, comes into focus around birds and is comprised of four main bodies of work. These works depict more than two dozen species of birds, including the surf scoter, Gambel’s quail, black billed magpie and cinnamon teal, and create a new visual taxonomy offering a fresh look at the practice of natural history paintings. In his exhibition, Prosek has replaced the names of birds with an alternate taxonomy based on geometric lines and shapes.

Floor-to-ceiling silkscreens that directly reference an illustration from Roger Tory Peterson’s original bird watching guide wallpaper two gallery walls and serve to introduce and conclude the exhibition. Several paintings of various shapes, sizes and materials meticulously depict faithfully rendered birds — some hovering in abstract environments and some carefully positioned and reproduced neatly as they might be found in a specimen drawer in a laboratory or natural history museum.

Prosek also paints on hand built gessoed and sanded boxes, not unlike the white of the steel specimen drawers in museum collections. The boxes conceptually reference how man tries to fit nature into neat little containers through collecting, naming, classifying and cataloging.

Finally, the exhibition includes a bevy of hand prepared — collected, skinned and stuffed by the artist — study birds that will hang from the gallery ceiling: Each of the actual birds is arranged by color and pattern, not by name.

The museum is at 258 Main Street. For information, www.aldrichart.org or 203-438-4519.