Jay Critchley, Incorporated at FAU
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Ever since Jay Critchley came out as a gay “born-again artist” thirty-five years ago, he has been inciting audiences and provoking mainstream media with his art by founding mock corporations to structure his work. The Provincetown, Massachusetts-based activist-artist addresses governmental power and corporate greed by using the tactics of marketing specialists — logos, trademarks, press releases, media conferences, newspaper ads, public appearances and billboards — to call attention to the environment, sexuality, and the theater of contemporary life.
“Jay Critchley, Incorporated” brings together over 125 multi-media works that span his long career, including sculptures, installations, photographs, videos, posters, and performance art. The exhibition will also present new collaborative installations co-created by Critchley and FAU faculty and students in cooperation with the departments of music, visual arts and art history, and theater and dance.
Rooters Day Ceremony
The exhibition presents over twenty of Jay Critchley’s long-term projects, along with the attention they have garnered via print and broadcast media. Those projects include: “Theatre in the Ground at Septic Space” (1993), a project inspired by his hometown backyard septic tank performance venue; “Old Glory Condom Corporation” (1989), a project created to promote safe sex and AIDS awareness via sculpture, press conference video, and corporate “promotional materials”; and the environmentally political “Nuclear Recycling Consultants [NRC]” (1983), a project formed to repurpose abandoned nuclear power facilities like the Three Mile Island Historic Nuclear Park and Planned Community Planned Community, with Luxury Seaside Radiation Cottages, Meltdown Mall, BTU Bar, and Half Life Jogging Track.
Deep Bones Installation
The public is invited to the free opening reception of “Jay Critchley, Inc.”, Thursday, February 4, from 6:30 to 8:30pm, in the Schmidt Center Gallery. The reception will feature a full collaborative program by Jay Critchley with members of the Florida Atlantic community, including world premier electro-acoustic musical compositions by Duo Gillis Cunningham, and a short dramatic adaptation of his fictional memoir, Uncle Jay, written by Desmond Gallant, and directed by Elizabeth Price.
Jay Critchley will also present select readings from Uncle Jay on Friday, February 5, beginning at 7pm. All events at the Schmidt Center Gallery, FAU, Boca Raton campus are free and open to the public. The exhibition will be on view February 5 to April 2, 2016. For more information, visit www.fau.edu/galleries.
~ Erica Ando
