From accessories worn by Trent Reznor and David Bowie to introspection channeled through graphic art, this New York artist’s latest exhibition in Tribeca’s Development Gallery unearths pieces from her collection to revive her musings from across decades.
Jennifer Elster has always been a deeply reactionary artist. Whether it is rebutting (or accepting) seismic shifts in the culture or simply responding to a question posed or a happening taking place, her multi-modal replies are always candid and fizzling with raw, determined energy.
Elster has always consumed with world as anyone else does- receiving and interpreting on an on-going basis. But rather than letting things happen to her passively, she posits and responds urgently and instinctually. Stepping into the Take Heed show, now on view at The Development Gallery in Tribeca, one feels as if they’re stepping outside for the first time after an apocalyptic event.
Crystalizing the flurry of cultural norms that have been introduced in the past two years, Take Heed is the first honest retrospective of work that was created or heavily reconsidered under the shadow of an on-going global pandemic and an affronting war.
Taking shape amid the soaring columns and roiled tin roof and wood of the Tribeca space, the show feels like a shell of what once was and a space being repopulated once more. The dust has settled but hasn’t yet been swept away. A mount of KN95 masks, a signature element of the deepest valley of the COVID-19 pandemic, are positioned on a pedestal, taking on the performance of a future relic. In fact, preservation seems particularly important to Elster in this show, with many works being encased in plexiglas or wood.
A series of large-scale self-portraits, originally executed in 2016, featured Elster in military fatigues and gas masks. The works, faraway and innocuous at the time of their execution, are revisited within the collective gasp and gaze of an egregious war taking place in Ukraine. Have no doubt, conflict rages globally. But distance can breed unfounded comfort.
Elster’s instinctual quips, done in chiseled marker, are not flailing in conspiracy, but are bright-red warning lights. “Warhead” (2022) is one of the most delicate and thought-provoking pieces the artist has completed in recent memory, adding to an ongoing series of “head” works that address, in the most abstract way, the awe-inspiring dynamism of the human condition.
When Is It Enough?, 2015, 2020, Acrylic on paper with hands and no body, 44.5h x 44w x 44d inches
Unlike previous shows, Elster is no longer angry. She’s done defending herself. Now she is a communicator. Her prophesies have come true and she’s been prepared for a long while. Now she invites the broader world to involve themselves. Of course, there is humor. There is realism. Elster remains as buoyant as ever, motivated by- believe it or not- absolute optimism.
Bowie as the character of Ramona in a photograph taken by John Scarisbrick for Bowie’s 1995 1. Outside album. Styled by Jennifer Elster
Viewers will relish in the opportunity to revisit one of Elster’s most remarkable achievements: the styling of the late David Bowie. In a new installation, the image, which is celebrated for its deeply collaborative and improvised instant, enters into a new territory of multi-dimensional bliss by way of cut web around the enlarged image. “Bowie and I went very deep. I wanted to pay tribute and incorporate but not overwhelm the show.”Elster’s work are available to purchase for the first time at ChannelELSTER.com/art-gallery and on Artsy. Most of the show has sold, but there are collectible Limited Editions Gaeclee canvases and Digital C-Prints that will be available upon proposal.
Take Heed will be on exhibition through January 5, 2023 at The Development Gallery in Tribeca, NYC.
Shop the J. Elster collection here.
It is rare a rare opportunity today to have meaningful dialogues about death in ways that feel both real and artful.
At her opening in Tribeca, Jennifer Elster was unavoidable. She was darting around the room like a nurse tending to a thousand patients; checking on her paint works, other humans performing; “are you doing okay?”, performing her own work, “central!”, to rearranging a piece that had turned over. If you weren’t asking, “who is that curious woman?”, she was asking guests, “so, what do you think?”, or cooing, “it’s so good to see you!” She was chicly dressed, but not oppressively boho; she maintained a glass of wine through night. She was glowing the entire time; clearly still on a life-long bender that hinged on perfection.
But for a long time, this woman -absolutely fizzling with energy- was avoidable. In every sense she was avoidable; she’d avoid questions, certainly avoid showing work, avoid explanation. She approached this retrospective with sensitivity. It was the first moment to show much of this work, and for someone like Elster, one thing she can no longer avoid is judgement of her work. But much of the work is stenciled or handwritten thoughts on canvas and paper: brief, often witty reflections on life. Elster has still successfully avoided revealing the time and place and circumstance that might have prompted any given phrase. We see this avoidance in her “In The Woods” video series, which followed the likes of Alan Cumming and Moby, hearing their responses but never the instructions.
Elster told us for the opening night, “the musicians did not receive programs until they arrived.” In this way, Elster is toying with the idea that while the performance is now unavoidable, why not go further, make it all that much more raw. Same goes for the performers dealing with Gender, Socio-economic issues, and more; almost alien in their presentation; stoic and nearing some sort of reverse uncanny valley. So here we are, asking about limits, which Elster took a good while to consider. But when asked about limits as a concept she retorted: “I trust my moral compass so I believe in pushing the limits as far as I am curious to explore to express my feelings or perspective. I push life in all mediums I get entangled with [sic]. If I am scared of something specifically, I am also drawn to it.”
Makes sense, considering the fact if she’s having a retrospective, a terrifying proposition, might as well do it perfectly. Worth knowing if Elster felt a sense of unavoidability in all of it … she goes on: “I have wanted to feel and expose my own vulnerability and I did so very much at the opening.” Called it. “And in turn I saw many people feeling and crying. We opened ourselves and that is beautiful and honest and brave.” Elster, who has collaborated with Yoko Ono and the late David Bowie, may know a thing or two in terms of getting other people to open up, even if she’s still shut off (remember, lots of this work is just now getting shown). Elster revels in, but never addresses the power of words. She’s a young Terry Gross. Elster makes a final observation: “I feel as if people are literally walking around inside of me at the Gallery […].” As a viewer, it felt this way, too. But with Elster there, I felt like a parent checking out my kid’s dorm away at college, with my kid rushing around in front of me, trying best as they can to tidy up and explain. There shouldn’t be a shame in it. Life is a choreography, and we can’t avoid a watchful eye, even our own.
J. Elster: The Retrospective of an Extroverted Recluse will be on view from May 13th to May 25th, 2016 at 75 Leonard St. NYC, 12:00 – 7:00 PM; closed Monday.
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