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Jay Batlle
Epicurean Drawings


March 18 - April 23, 2005

Andrew Roth is pleased to present three new series of pencil and ink drawings by the celebrated young artist, Jay Batlle: The Minimalist , Dining In/Dining Out, and Cuts of Meat. On view there will be approximately 30 drawings.

Batlle, a skilled chef, tackles picture-making as he would the preparation of a fine meal: he follows a recipe, a formula. Lifting logos and fragmented texts from the New York Times (either Mark Bittman’s “The Minimalist” or “Dining In/Dining Out”) he begins the process-driven drawings. Over the text, he places an image lifted from an internet source used to represent key works of art by contemporary artists such as Joseph Beuys, Robert Gober, Jeff Koons, Bruce Nauman, or Charles Ray. And lastly, he punctuates the picture with an affect: the drip.

Batlle’s deliberate methodology highlights two privileged pastimes: gourmet cooking and art collecting. By deconstructing recipes, he creates visual poems; in referencing those canonized images from recent art history, he is offering a critical view of a consumer driven art market. These conceptually based images are seductive pictorial puzzles, rendering here is pure technique not finesse.

Batlle is best known for his sculptural pieces. This is the first one-person exhibition of his drawings. He has shown in group and one-person exhibitions in Europe and the U.S. In 2004, his work was included in “I, Assassin,” curated by Slater Bradley at Wallspace in New York; in 2003 he had a one-person exhibition of his sculptures “The Trouble with Having an Interior Designer for a Mother,” at 1000eventi in Milan, Italy; and in 2002, he presented “Ten Sculptures” at Esso Gallery in New York.