K. Mecca Presents
Anna Jekel: I’m So Glad I Moved to New York

October 18-20, 2024 at C5BK, 5 Central Avenue, Brooklyn, NY

Opening Reception: Friday, October 18, 6PM-9PM

K. Mecca is pleased to present I’m So Glad I Moved to New York, an exhibition of work by Anna Jekel at C5BK featuring new paintings, prints, and an artist’s zine. Imbued with sensual color that is layered and scratched, obscuring figures and revealing creatures, Jekel’s dreamy paintings arose after an experience floating on her back in a mountain lake. In this moment of tranquility, past and future came together, of both a single life as well as the ongoing coexistence of humans and animals. Returning to New York, she painted intuitively, reflecting on the plants and animals that inhabited the mountain and lake, understanding herself as part of this natural world.

The paintings take a mixed media approach. Lines of crayon and colored pencil often shine through acrylic glazes or create bold outlines on matte Flashe. Collage is also used to playfully disrupt the surface and incorporate sketchbook elements. Sketches and reflection on primal roots are also central to the artist’s zine called I Wanted to be a Creature. This zine elevates quick sketches into a meditation on the desire for different forms, relationships, and realities. With the trace monotypes being showcased, Jekel uses the stream-of-consciousness printmaking technique in pared-down black and white. Inspired by contour lines drawings, they often portray bodies at odds with the world or with themselves.

I’m So Glad I Moved to New York acknowledges that being happy in the city is not negating a naturalistic past nor a sarcastic impossibility, but embracing the tension of being an animal and an artist.

Contact:
Kim Mecca | kimberly.mecca@gmail.com