Opening Reception: Friday May 7th, 2010 6 – 9 PM
Zachary Schomburg poetry reading 8 PM presented by The University of Wynwood*

Second Saturday: Saturday May 8th, 2010 7 – 10 PM

Gallery Diet is pleased to present the first solo painting exhibition of NY-based artist JJ PEET entitled The Sunday Painter.

The Sunday Painter is part of an ongoing project in which PEET responds to contemporary social, economic and political events through the process of art-making. While PEET has previously dealt with these issues in a reactive manner using more immediate media such as audio, video, live broadcast and sculpture, The Sunday Painter is focused solely on the act of painting.

Painting, a very different type of practice, allows PEET to take a more contemplative approach to current affairs. This relates directly to the methods of the NY school of painters from the late 1950’s and early 1960’s in which artists were responding to a tumultuous cultural climate via painting. PEET will also explore the relationship of class and economics through the more high-bow leisure orientated act of painting versus the labor/working class act of making present in his previous project, The TV Show.

During the course of the exhibit, PEET will continue to work within a hidden painting studio that he designed to be modular and therefore mobile. The self-contained unit can be easily broken down and gives PEET a space that can be transported to different locations, allowing him to respond to political environments in specifics area around the world.

JJ PEET has exhibited in New York City at On Stellar Rays, where he is represented and is a graduate of the Yale School of Art’s prestigious MFA program. His work has been written about in Art in America twice and in Frieze.com, PEET’s work is in the permanent collections of The White House, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and the Minnesota Historical Society.

Gallery Diet represents five emerging and mid-career artists including Brian Burkhardt, Charley Friedman, Richard Höglund, Abby Manock, and Daniel Milewski. Exhibitions from the gallery have and are scheduled to travel to institutions such as The University of Wyoming Art Museum (Brian Burkhardt ’09), the Benton Museum at the University of Connecticut (Abby Manock, ’10), and MARTE in El Salvador (Abby Manock, ’10 forthcoming).

Zachary Schomburg will present a reading as part of the University of Wynwood visiting poet series. Schomburg is the author of two collections of poetry, The Man Suit (Black Ocean, 2007) and Scary, No Scary (Black Ocean, 2009).