Nemo April First Friday Opening – A Time For Lions
March 26th, 2009 by Dave Allen
A Time For Lions: Artwork of Blake Britton and Jonny Fenix
PORTLAND, OR – Nemo presents A Time For Lions, with the artwork of Blake Britton and
Jonny Fenix, a photo exhibit opening on Friday, April 3, 2009 6-10pm. The show will run through
Monday, April 27, 2009 at Nemo: 1875 SE Belmont Street in Portland, OR. The opening
reception includes a special musical guest.
A Time For Lions, may be a call to action in response to the incomprehensible, unjust and
unconstitutional, which both Britton’s and Fenix’s works address. Though similar in its question, their
work is vastly different in application. Fenix takes a playful, satirical approach to the contradictions
of mass media and the realities they gloss over. While Britton’s works have more traumatic
manifestations of a world experience. Both artist implicate themselves, their privileges and their loses in their work, making more multidimensional pieces that invite the audience to question their role in these inconsistencies.
Blake Britton was born in Phoenix, Arizona in 1978. He has spent the time since observing the
relationships between humans and their existence while studying the craft processes of the past. His
current work he examines the social paradigms that exist within our own culture and brings into
question the complacency of free thinkers, entitled mongers, and the otherwise forgettable bravado
we encounter daily. The work serves him as both question and statement, as ambiguous as truth, as
heavy as feathers. He currently lives with his wife and cats in Portland, Oregon where he works a
freelance artist and prop maker for film. His work has shown in Los Angeles, Phoenix, Philadelphia,
and Portland among other places.
Jonny Fenix was born in Nacogdoches, Texas in 1973, and currently lives in Portland Oregon. He
walks the world with his daughters and wife and wonders why mankind isn’t. Why is man’s push to
extinguish rudely everything natural? Quietly screaming. From neither school nor the streets, he spent his boyhood in the desserts of Arizona thinking to himself, “this looks like the bottom of the ocean”. Researching everywhere, he attempts to create what his mind sees. Artwork, furniture, sculpture, letters to friends, they are the same and loaded. Soft but Sharp. Pretty and Painful. To say nothing is not possible. His work has shown in Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, Philadelphia and New York.
Tags: Blake Britton, First Friday, Jonny Fenix, NemoHQ, Portland, StudioNemo
