Jay Bolotin: A Jackleg Testament
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The work of interdisciplinary artist Jay Bolotin, which includes prints, drawings, sculptures, sets and animated films, is on exhibit at the University of Kentucky Art Museum through June 21.
Weaving together personal musings and universal myths, Bolotin formed epic narratives requiring years of labor-intensive studio activity and the mastering of both traditional and state-of-the-art techniques. A gifted storyteller, he was informed by children’s bedtime reading, biblical tales (and their interpretation) and the writings of the Brothers Grimm, Franz Kafka, Bruno Schulz and Flannery O’Connor, among others. Oral histories and songs from his upbringing in Lexington also played a role in his development.
The exhibition includes prints from portfolios including “The Jackleg Testament, Part I: Jack & Eve” (2004-05), in which Bolotin illustrates his own rewritten account of the Book of Genesis; and “The Book of Only Enoch” (2011-14), in which woodcut and intaglio etching combine to tell the story of Only Enoch, a sensitive Jewish boy from Kentucky (named after an apocryphal book left out of the Hebrew Bible) who leaves home in search of adventure. Bolotin would eventually use his print portfolios as the jumping-off point for animated films, two examples of which are central to the exhibition.
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