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PRESS RELEASE
Contacts:
Jenny Krasner
jenny@jennykrasner.com
www.jennykrasner.com
917.647.6834
FUSION presents “The Beijing Series”, from October 25th through January 25th, 818 West 54th Street, Between 54th and 55th Street on Tenth Avenue. Open every day from 5 p.m. – 11 p.m.
Jenny Krasner studied Chinese for 4 months before traveling through Beijing for 2 weeks. Krasner was most shocked about how cosmopolitan it was. There did not seem at first, to be any inkling of a past, and Beijing is approximately 3000 years old. Krasners goal was to find the old China which had been pretty much destroyed by the Cultural Revolution and the vandalism of Chairman Mao’s Red Guards. Krasner was able to discover some anthropological finds in their flea market and took quite a lot of photographs there, as well as in the Hutong (meaning lane or alley), which was the old Beijing. They tore down most of the Hutongs of Beijing and ‘relocated’ their people to build sky scrapers. Even the section of the Great Wall she was brought to with it’s construction starting in the 7th Century B.C., turned out to be completely rebuilt 15 years ago. She had to hike past all the tourists to the end of this new section, to be able to see the actual ‘wall’ that was mostly rubble. But…it was that rubble that inspired her. Krasners goal was to photograph the ‘real’ China in Beijing, which they were desperately trying to cover up and renovate for the 2008 Olympics. “The Beijing Series” is the outcome of this endeavor.
Jenny Krasner earned her B.F.A. degree from Oxford University, The Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, England and her M.F.A. degree from Columbia University. She has exhibited at numerous Museums and Galleries including The Bronx Museum, The Jersey City Museum, NUTUREart, Ian Peck Gallery, The American Academy in Rome, Johnson + Johnson World Headquarters and The Alliance Francaise. She has received Fellowships and Grants from The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, The Seaside Institute, Oxford University, The 92nd Street Y and The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Jenny Krasner’s current projects include: Artist-in-Residence at the Makor/Steinhardt Center of the 92nd Street Y and a performance outdoor exhibition of her mixed-media art works. Krasner was born, and currently lives and works in Manhattan.
Directions:
FUSION, “The Beijing Series” Is located at 818 West 54th St., between 54th and 55th Street on 10th Avenue. FUSION is open to the public seven days a week from October 25th through January 25, 5p.m. - 11 p.m. P# 212.397.1133