Commonwealth & Council continues its commitment to practices that challenge traditional notions about the purpose and meaning of art-making with its presentation of Jennifer Moon’s first solo-exhibition with the space, Phoenix Rising, Part 1: This Is Where I Learned Of Love.

Phoenix Rising, Part 1: This Is Where I Learned Of Love explores how to document abundance, formlessness, continuous expansion, relentless awareness of self, unadulterated love, and the ever-changing definitions of the artist’s public/private personas. Specifically, the objects presented document Moon’s nine-month incarceration at Valley State Prison for Women. The objects include photographs of items acquired during her stay at VSPW (for example, a clear plastic typewriter, a sketch of her cell layout, and her California Department of Corrections Identification Card) as well as sculptural elements incorporating the actual typewriter and letters exchanged with lovers in and out of prison. The photographs and accompanying text (in a book published to accompany each photograph) showcase the ephemera with an almost scientific precision that prevents the viewer from perceiving any one object as more precious than the next. The systematic treatment of each photographed item embodies the two basic principles of The Revolution – continuous expansion and unadulterated love – a philosophy that Moon authored and which has served as the foundation for her practice (takeaway pamphlets on abundance, an aspect of continuous expansion, are available to all). There is a distinct feeling that the objects exhibited were meticulously curated from an infinitely expansive group of items capable of bearing the weight of its role in Moon’s acquisition of the understanding of unadulterated love. However, in the interest of propelling rather than impeding the formless forward momentum of The Revolution, Moon has provided only that which is absolutely necessary to clearly, with love and beauty, broadcast her intent.

Jennifer Moon lives and works in Los Angeles, CA and earned her BA from University of California, Los Angeles and her MFA from Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA. Most recently Moon participated in a group exhibition Jerry/Jury-Rigged, curated by Jan Tumlir, at Glendale College Art Gallery, Glendale, CA. Moon has had solo-exhibitions at China Art Objects Galleries, Los Angeles, CA; Richard Heller Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; and Tunnel, New York, NY. She was the recipient of the Teague-Melville-Elliot Prize (1995); Robert Lee Adams Stipend (1994); and UCLA Art Council Fellowship (1992).