For immediate release:
Hello My Name is Gallery presents:

KNOW FUN
New work by Meridith Passabet and Jamie Powell
May 17 – June 15, 2008
Opening Reception: May 17, 7 – 10 pm

On May 17th Hello My Name is Gallery will present KNOW FUN, an exhibition of new work by Meridith Passabet and Jamie Powell. The work in KNOW FUN ranges from abstract painting to photography to sculpture. Both Passabet and Powell make work that, through use of color, scale, and materials, simultaneously evokes fun and the inevitable disappointment that frequently follows the pursuit of pleasure.

Meridith Passabet will show new paintings that merge the formal concerns of contemporary abstract painting with moody atmospherics and areas of bright, pastel color. Passabet’s work explores the symbiotic relationship of pleasure and disappointment. In one painting on view, Wasteland (Oil on canvas, 2007), Passabet presents an abstracted landscape of heaped gray forms sprinkled with dots and blobs of pastel colors. Wasteland evokes a city street littered with post-parade confetti, or Times Square on New Year’s Day.
Jamie Powell will show a series of new photographs, silkscreen prints, paintings and sculptures. Powell’s work mines abstract painting, kitsch craft and pop culture, resulting in a diverse body of work that is at once bright, accessible and abject. In Altered State (silkscreen and airbrush on paper, 2007) lurid hues of purple, green and pink combine, recalling the internal space experienced during a moment of pleasure. The euphoria depicted in Altered State is one of cheap thrills – the high experienced after eating fast food, watching bad 80’s movies, or drinking too much cheap beer.

KNOW FUN opens on May 17th, with an opening reception from 7 to 10pm. Hello My Name is Gallery is located at 838 Whalley Ave. Apt. 4 New Haven CT 06515.