Fast Food

September  14, 2023 – October 19, 2023

 Jack Penny 

The Dot Project is delighted to announce Fast Food, a  solo show by  British artist Jack Penny in the new gallery space in Oddington in the Cotswolds.

The exhibition, made up of large paintings and accompanied by smaller sketches, takes us on a journey through a typical private members club, reinterpreted through Penny’s lens.

Exploring everyday aspects of the hospitality realm, Penny portrays an affectionate tribute to the often underrated staff members : Waiters and Chefs, presented as frantic characters – uniform and seemingly anonymous. They cunningly juxtapose scenes of leisure and employment with exploitation – Swordfish taking centre stage.

By focusing on high pressure, high expectation environments as his subject matter, Penny uses compassion and humour to shine a light on the underdog as well as our society’s ever growing desire to be part of something exclusive. Penny engages with the rawness of our daily experience – living too fast, too dispensable, too disposable – making a comment on the human condition. Fast Food, though delivered in a playful manner, brings us to question our own gluttony and greed but also the established system and daily grind of blue and white-collar workers as they cross paths in their journey to fulfilment.

Drawing inspiration from artists such as Robert Colescott best known for audacious and socially charged paintings in the 1970’s, and Raymond Materson who infused humour into his intricate prison-made tapestries during the 1980s, Penny has created a collection of  ‘serious paintings that don’t take themselves too seriously’.

Fast Food addresses excess – a theme that Penny frequently revisits – with a fresh approach, incorporating more humour to the recipe; balancing his works on the knifes edge of being slapstick and spearheaded.