The Pit is pleased to present Wild is the Wind, Jennifer Rochlin’s first one-person exhibition at the gallery. An opening reception will be held on March 4 from 4-7pm, and the exhibition will be on view through April 15, 2018.

Trained as a painter, Jennifer Rochlin took up ceramics as a way to expand her painting practice into three dimensions. Rochlin uses terra cotta clay to handbuild vessels in coil and slab methods, creating familiar forms that echo the long history of ceramics. Undulating with dents and bulges, Rochlin’s vessels reject direct homage, however, in favor of suggesting the unpredictable, beautiful variance of human bodies: these are not production pots but are something apart, individual and free.

The works on view in Wild is the Wind are the largest vessels Rochlin has made to date and possess an imposing physical presence. The scale also offers more room for Rochlin’s imagery. Her brushy, expressive gestures in underglaze and glaze reside both comfortably and in contrast to the sgraffito drawing method she also employs. Ranging from Botticelli's Venus to Wonder Woman to P22 (the mountain lion made famous by living near the Hollywood sign in Los Angeles’ Griffith Park), the images on Rochlin’s vessels document the ongoing narrative of her life but also point to the depth and breadth of time and history of which we are all a part.

Jennifer Rochlin was born in Baltimore, MD and lives in Los Angeles, CA. She received a BA from the University of Colorado, Boulder (1991), a MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (1999), and participated in an exchange at the Universität der Künste, Berlin, Germany in 1998. Rochlin’s work has been featured in exhibitions such as Home Show, Revisited, Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, Santa Barbara, CA (2011); Open Daybook, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Los Angeles, CA (2011); MKE-LAX, Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, Milwaukee, WI (2012); Venice Beach Biennial, in conjunction with Made in LA 2012, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles and Venice, CA (2012); Sculptures, 356 Mission, Los Angeles, CA (2013); Machine Project Guide to the Gamble House, Gamble House, Pasadena, CA (2014); Sex Pot, University of San Diego, San Diego, CA (2016); and The Brightsiders, Verge Center for the Arts, Sacramento, CA (2017). Rochlin is the recipient of the Individual Artist Grant from the Belle Foundation (2015) and the Durfee Foundation ARC grant (2007).

Wonder Woman, Rocks, Sea, Shields/Rope Pattern, 2018, Glazed ceramic, 25 x 33 x 24 inches

Wonder Woman, Rocks, Sea, Shields/Rope Pattern, 2018, Glazed ceramic, 25 x 33 x 24 inches

Untitled, 2018, Oil and collage paper, 36.5 x 42.5 inches

P22, coyote, Griffith Park, Echo Park, 2018, Glazed Ceramic, 23 x 26.5 x 23 inches

P22, coyote, Griffith Park, Echo Park, 2018, Glazed Ceramic, 23 x 26.5 x 23 inches

Untitled, 2018, Oil and collage paper, 29.75 x 22.75 inches

Venus, Shells, Flowers, 2018, Glazed ceramic, 17 x 26.5 x 15 inches

Venus, Shells, Flowers, 2018, Glazed ceramic, 17 x 26.5 x 15 inches