Mixed Greens is thrilled to present Joan Linder’s most ambitious exhibition to date. In this show, she will exhibit two amazing projects: a fifty-foot ballpoint pen drawing of The Pink (a neighborhood bar in Buffalo, NY), and a series of evocative drawings detailing the sexual exploits and everyday activities of a rabbit.

According to Buffalo artist Steve Kurtz:

Some variation of the The Pink can be found in any town…. They are black holes of cheap liquor filled with aberrant, unpredictable souls. A person will either relentlessly search for such places or spend an equal amount of effort trying to avoid them. These stale, keg-fueled infernos should not be confused with a local dive (you can’t order Night Train or rest your drunken head on the bar). They are not a court of last resort; they are enthusiastically chosen.

…The Pink has character. Sure, it has layers of grime, nicotine stained glass, yellowed, cracked porcelain, and ash-baked floors, but it also has peeling layers of cultural rebellion, political objection, and subtle perversity.

Linder has always been interested in the layering of meaning through exquisite, undulating line drawings. In the pink redux, she draws political placards, liquor bottles, portraits and countless tchotchkes next to each other on an almost one-to-one scale. It is not simply documentation of one bar in Buffalo, it is a unique amalgamation of objects and sentiments that have been crucial to Linder’s work for years. In this culminating work, she has found her home at The Pink.

In the South Gallery is an equally comprehensive project. For several years, Linder has drawn a rabbit. In small, 8.5 x 8.5 inch drawings, she has detailed this alter ego’s life. The rabbit is seen doing everything from masturbating to yoga to watching TV. Sexual rendezvous are captured along with pregnancy and the eventual birth of a baby rabbit.

Joan Linder’s last solo exhibition was at Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center in Buffalo, NY (2007). Other recent venues include the Jewish Museum, Pittsburgh, PA (2006), Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, NC (2006), Diverse Work, Houston, TX (2005), The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT (2004, 2005), Wave Hill, Bronx, NY (2005), Gwanjgu Museum, Korea (2005), Queens Museum of Art, NY (2003), Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA (2001) and the Bronx Museum, NY (1999). Notable awards include the Constance Saltonstall Foundation Grant (2006), a MacDowell residency (2004), a Lower East Side Printshop Special Editions fellowship (2003), the National Foundation of Jewish Culture’s Ronnie Hayman award (2003), an arts residency at University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (2003) and a grant from Pollack Krasner Foundation (2001).

For more information, please visit joanlinder.com


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