Multimedia exhibition exploring environmental collapse, reflectivity, leisure, adaptation, privilege, the institution, and art.

On View July 15 – September 26, 2021 | Potter Gallery

Inspired by prepper and survivalist subcultures in the wake of global climate change, Jillian Mayer's fiberglass sculptures, ceramic forms, and paintings seem to point to one harsh reality: time is running out. With environmental and infrastructural collapse in mind, the exhibited works are tongue-in-cheek propositions on how humans might discover new ways to adapt to the natural world. Mayer explores how art can become functional during times of disaster or when the planet becomes uninhabitable.

Jillian Mayer: TIMESHARE is curated by Rachel Adams, Bemis Center Chief Curator and Director of Programs, and organized by the University at Buffalo Art Galleries, Buffalo, NY (February 5–May 11, 2019) and Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Omaha, NE (November 20, 2019–February 15, 2020).

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Jillian Mayer is an artist and filmmaker.

Through, videos, sculptures, online experiences, photography, performances, and installations, Mayer explores how technology affects our lives, bodies, and identities by processing how our physical world and bodies are impacted and reshaped by our participation in a digital landscape. Mayer investigates the points of tension between our online and physical worlds and makes work that attempts to inhabit the increasingly porous boundary between the two. Mayer's artwork has a consistent thread of modeling how to subvert capital-driven modes of technological innovation.