jay critchley, incorporated
In 2015, the Provincetown Art Association & Museum (PAAM) presented Jay Critchley, Incorporated:, the first-ever museum survey of Provincetown artist Jay Critchley’s work, spanning more than 30 years.
An 80 page catalog was published by Provincetown Arts Press. An iBook version will be available soon, in collaboration with the Provincetown Public Library. In Feb 2016 the exhibition will travel to Florida Atlantic University Galleries in Boca Raton.
A statement by the curator, Bailey Bob Bailey
Provincetown Art Association & Museum, 2015
In the summer of 1991, Nick Flynn invited me to a dinner party at his place—a sparsely furnished, and probably cheap, summer rental in the West End of town—where I first met Jay Critchley, the conceptual and performance artist I had heard so much about in my first year living in Provincetown. Nick’s apartment was near the old Moor’s restaurant, where Jay used to work as a waiter, and that night we dined with a group of young and talented poets. What I remember most about that first meeting was Jay’s big laugh and engaging banter.
At the time, Jay was the object of controversial fanfare, after being chosen to represent contemporary artists in the documentary Provincetown: U.S.A. He was also known as the longtime founder and administrator of the community fundraiser Swim for Life.
The night of the dinner party, Jay was wearing a baseball cap. Looking back, this seems appropriate. He is a man of many hats, now a longtime friend who I believe is the most inventive Provincetown artist of his generation.
Jay’s artistic beginnings started in a parking lot on the town’s wharf, with a sand-covered station wagon complete with a facsimile family. The car, the first in his Sand series, became a bit of a media happening, and forged a public connection with the town. Sand Car marks Jay’s foray into the world of art and press: from his annual Christmas tree pyre and purge to his backyard septic space as opera and theater house, Jay’s engagement with the world is explicitly linked to the masses. His art reminds us of our collective and complete culpability—his work on AIDS, America’s car culture, sewage dispersement, and nuclear energy all point to the catastrophe inherent in being a member of society.
Jay’s art looks at the planet from space. In his projects Beige and Big Twig, he celebrates the audacity of man’s inability to steward life on earth. Jay’s subjects are love and death, and the long trail of effluence joining the two. His art commands us to stand up and take notice, else we suffer the consequences. He is a societal soothsayer, holding a mirror to our world, warts and all, and through that process Jay has become a starets of revelation.
What is often overlooked in Jay’s body of work is his formal capacity as a maker. He employs a solid and profound use of materials; his compositional presentations of sculptures and installations are elegant and complex. Jay’s brilliant object making is often occluded by his performance-based verbosity and chicanery. Yet his work can be listed as a clarion of material-based descriptions.
Condom covered statuettes of Abraham Lincoln, the Virgin Mary and the Pieta.
A “Jackie O” pillbox hat made of multiple fish skins
Twin Towers fabricated out of flashing disposable
Cameras.
Canisters of sand from around the world
Miss Tampon Liberty’s robe, torch and crown made of beach-combed plastic tampon applicators
Jay’s scatology of democracy, capitalism and the social contract are presented through corporate logos, public sacrifice and contrived ritual. Few artists rival the scope of his work, and fewer still function in such a multiplicity of realms. Jay Critchley the seer, gravedigger and jester in one, is a man necessary for all of us in the theater piece of contemporary life.
An 80 page catalog was published by Provincetown Arts Press. An iBook version will be available soon, in collaboration with the Provincetown Public Library. In Feb 2016 the exhibition will travel to Florida Atlantic University Galleries in Boca Raton.
A statement by the curator, Bailey Bob Bailey
Provincetown Art Association & Museum, 2015
In the summer of 1991, Nick Flynn invited me to a dinner party at his place—a sparsely furnished, and probably cheap, summer rental in the West End of town—where I first met Jay Critchley, the conceptual and performance artist I had heard so much about in my first year living in Provincetown. Nick’s apartment was near the old Moor’s restaurant, where Jay used to work as a waiter, and that night we dined with a group of young and talented poets. What I remember most about that first meeting was Jay’s big laugh and engaging banter.
At the time, Jay was the object of controversial fanfare, after being chosen to represent contemporary artists in the documentary Provincetown: U.S.A. He was also known as the longtime founder and administrator of the community fundraiser Swim for Life.
The night of the dinner party, Jay was wearing a baseball cap. Looking back, this seems appropriate. He is a man of many hats, now a longtime friend who I believe is the most inventive Provincetown artist of his generation.
Jay’s artistic beginnings started in a parking lot on the town’s wharf, with a sand-covered station wagon complete with a facsimile family. The car, the first in his Sand series, became a bit of a media happening, and forged a public connection with the town. Sand Car marks Jay’s foray into the world of art and press: from his annual Christmas tree pyre and purge to his backyard septic space as opera and theater house, Jay’s engagement with the world is explicitly linked to the masses. His art reminds us of our collective and complete culpability—his work on AIDS, America’s car culture, sewage dispersement, and nuclear energy all point to the catastrophe inherent in being a member of society.
Jay’s art looks at the planet from space. In his projects Beige and Big Twig, he celebrates the audacity of man’s inability to steward life on earth. Jay’s subjects are love and death, and the long trail of effluence joining the two. His art commands us to stand up and take notice, else we suffer the consequences. He is a societal soothsayer, holding a mirror to our world, warts and all, and through that process Jay has become a starets of revelation.
What is often overlooked in Jay’s body of work is his formal capacity as a maker. He employs a solid and profound use of materials; his compositional presentations of sculptures and installations are elegant and complex. Jay’s brilliant object making is often occluded by his performance-based verbosity and chicanery. Yet his work can be listed as a clarion of material-based descriptions.
Condom covered statuettes of Abraham Lincoln, the Virgin Mary and the Pieta.
A “Jackie O” pillbox hat made of multiple fish skins
Twin Towers fabricated out of flashing disposable
Cameras.
Canisters of sand from around the world
Miss Tampon Liberty’s robe, torch and crown made of beach-combed plastic tampon applicators
Jay’s scatology of democracy, capitalism and the social contract are presented through corporate logos, public sacrifice and contrived ritual. Few artists rival the scope of his work, and fewer still function in such a multiplicity of realms. Jay Critchley the seer, gravedigger and jester in one, is a man necessary for all of us in the theater piece of contemporary life.
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