Art News
Reviews Summer 1992
page 131
Jenny Okun
Bertha Urdang
Bringing an unusual, Kaleidoscopic eye to her work, Jenny Okun
has been producing photographic abstractions that are nothing short of magical.
After making preliminary drawings, Okun constructs each of her architectural
studies on location by advancing an extended frame in increments, with usually
six overlapping images on one negative. In this recent show, the effects of
Okun’s splintered images of buildings by such contemporary architects as
Frank Gehry, Arata Isozaki, I.M. Pei and Richard Rogers vary from cool to dramatic.
Urban Innovations offers a marvelous geometric study of the lines and shadows
of steps and balusters. Lloyds at Night (the "Lloyds" being the modernistic
headquarters of Lloyds of London designed by Richard Rogers) is a rich crescendo
of illuminated curves overlaid with rays of light. And Serra Broadgate, with
its sections of shadowed brutalist façade against a blue sky, is probably
the most boldly kaleidoscopic.
Also in this show were Okun’s sculptural abstractions of her photographic
work, her newest artistic venture. These small angular pieces ( they vary in
height from 10 inches to 18 inches) are mostly fashioned out of pieces of Plexiglas
and painted in such candy colors as orange, yellow, blue and green, with a few
motifs added in black. They don’t appear to be anything but playful explorations.
But just as Okun’s photographs, over the last decade have matured and gained
complexity, mystery, and power, one expects a similar evolution in her sculptural
work.