Garden of Archetypes
Jen Dwyer
March 10 - April 23, 2022
Opening Reception: Thursday, March 10, 6-8pm
Address: 242 West 22nd Street, New York, NY 10011

“Using Images of young desirable women who are always out of reach to sell objects feeds the desire for more. Even when bought the object never fully satisfies our desire. The ‘real’ is never fully attainable. The fantasy is never fully satisfied.”
- quote from Being Gorgeous by Dr. Jacki Willson

Dinner Gallery is proud to present Garden of Archetypes, an exhibition of new sculptures and paintings by Jen Dwyer. This is her first solo exhibition with the gallery and will be on view from March 10th through April 23rd with an opening reception on Thursday, March 10th from 6-8pm.

Garden of Archetypes follows a female character as she readies herself to enter public life, leaving her private bubble behind. Initially welcomed by a familiar facsimile of contemporary culture, the viewer is presented with the character’s “public archetype”. However, upon further examination, Dwyer pulls back the curtain to unveil and celebrate the ‘Character’s’ unique and complicated narrative, filled with a multitude of beautiful and contrasting archetypes all contained within one body. As the viewer wanders through Dwyer’s exhibition, they are escorted to see the magical chaos of daily life, swirling to-do lists, unique memories and past lived experiences, all concealed behind curated curtains. 

Channeling aspects of Rococo style, antiquital archetypes, surrealism and modern daily rituals including beauty and fashion, Dwyer navigates between the two spaces to grapple with the dualities and contradictions that arise out of adulthood. Who are we when confronted with others and how does that compare to when we are alone? Where does our private life end and our public life begin? Her whimsical and dream-like scenes blur the lines between reality and fantasy, private and public, and taste and value, while revealing the external factors that have helped shape these choices while also alluding to a private world of the imagination. 

Dwyer’s practice has long examined the rise and fall of taste and the power of the tastemaker. The ephemeral nature of taste seeks to uncover where it originates from and who has the authority to create it. Prompted by the complexities of cultural conformity and the subversive tones popular trends can often take, Dwyer considers its relationship to taste and desire.

About Jen Dwyer
Jen Dwyer (b. 1988, lives and works in Torrington, CT)  received a BFA in Ceramics and a minor in Art History from University of Washington. She finished her MFA in the Spring of 2019 from University of Notre Dame where she received a Full Fellowship in Ceramics with a Gender Studies Minor. Dwyer has participated in many residencies and fellowships, including the Pottery Center in Jingdezhen, China; fellowship at Wassaic Projects and recently started the Museum of Art and Design Studio Residency. Recent exhibitions include the Spring/Break Art Fair in New York City, Maxon Mills Gallery in Wassaic, and the Snite Museum, at Notre Dame.