(PDF) (DOC) (JPG)January 9, 2008

(Mahwah) – The Analyst, an exhibition of new work by artist Jennifer Dudley, will open Wednesday, February 6 in the Berrie Center’s Pascal Gallery on the campus of Ramapo College of New Jersey.  The exhibition will continue through March 7.  The opening reception will be held February 6 from 5-7 p.m. and an artist’s talk will begin at 6:30 p.m.  An artist lecture will be given on March 5 at 5:30 p.m. in the Pascal Gallery.

The Analyst couples a double portrait painting and a psychoanalyst’s couch.  The painting, Portrait of the Artist and Jane Austen, depicts a scene taken from director Ang Lee’s film adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel Sense and Sensibility.

The exhibit is representative of Dudley’s varied working process.  The starkness of the painting and the psychoanalyst’s couch has the impact of the viewer making a deeply intimate connection to the painting.

In Portrait of the Artist and Jane Austen, the film’s two starring characters have been replaced.  In their stead is a portrait of the artist fully absorbed in anguish and directing the emotion to a fictional representation of Austen, whose gaze is turned outward toward the viewer.  The painting faces an analyst’s couch, which invites the viewer to inhabit the space of the psychoanalyzed patient and to view the painting from this position.

Dudley’s reincarnation of Austen’s fiction prods ideas about character identification and emotional authenticity, and questions our culture’s complicated relationship with history and authorship.  The viewer of The Analyst is invited to participate in a similarly generative act by occupying the space of the psychoanalyzed patient on the analyst’s couch.

Jennifer Dudley was a visiting professor of Painting and Drawing at Ramapo College in the fall 2007 semester as a CAA Geraldine R. Dodge Fellow.  Dudley received her BFA from the University of Georgia in 1998, her MFA from Yale University in 2005, and attended Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2006.  Recent projects include participation in Vision Request, organized by Andrea Zittel, and the organization of Ad Hoc Vox, a series of panel discussions and lectures on a wide range of topics in the arts that have taken place at galleries throughout New York City.  Dudley currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

This program is made possible in part by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.

The Pascal Gallery is located in the Berrie Center for Performing and Visual Arts at Ramapo College.  Hours are Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 1 to 5 p.m. and Wednesday, 1 to 7 p.m.  For more information, call (201) 684-7147.

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About Ramapo College

Ramapo College of New Jersey is the state’s premier public liberal arts college and is committed to academic excellence through interdisciplinary and experiential learning, and international and intercultural understanding. The comprehensive college is situated among the beautiful Ramapo Mountains, is within commuting distance to New York City, was named one of the 50 Most Beautiful College Campuses in America by CondeNast Traveler, and boasts the best on-campus housing in New Jersey per Niche.com. Established in 1969, Ramapo College offers bachelor’s degrees in the arts, business, data science, humanities, social sciences and the sciences, as well as in professional studies, which include business, education, nursing and social work. In addition, the College offers courses leading to teacher certification at the elementary and secondary levels, and offers graduate programs leading to master’s degrees in Accounting, Applied Mathematics, Business Administration, Contemporary Instructional Design, Computer Science, Creative Music Technology, Data Science, Educational Leadership, Nursing, Social Work and Special Education, as well as a Doctor of Nursing Practice.

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