Swing Space Gallery presents the exhibition, Negative Crotch, and Other Friends, featuring the work of Leeza Meksin, opening Thursday, August 2, and continuing through Wednesday, August 29. The gallery, located in the South Campus Gateway complex at 1556 North High St., will host an informal exhibition walk-through with Leeza Meksin and Assistant Professor George Rush on August 2 from 5 to 6 pm, followed by an opening reception from 6 to 8 pm.

Meksin, former Department of Art visiting artist and senior lecturer, presents work that was created within the past year and while she was at Ohio State. Her stuffed and stretched spandex paintings reference both the body and cavernous landscapes. The grotesquely layered and embellished surfaces evoke hyper-fitted garments worn by entertainers, drag queens and super heroes. The surfaces of these paintings appear to rise, deflate, and undulate, reflecting on the notions of hard and soft, masculine and feminine, public and private.

Through her process, Meksin confronts issues of sustainability, consumerism, and the artist’s relationship to production and conservation. She is working toward an environmentally conscious reduction of artistic clutter created by material wastefulness.

Leeza Meksin is a Brooklyn-based interdisciplinary artist who makes paintings, installations, public art, and multiples. Born and raised in the Soviet Union, Meksin immigrated to the U.S. in 1989. She earned a BA in comparative literature and an MA in the humanities, both from the University of Chicago, and an MFA in painting from the Yale School of Art. She has been teaching at Tyler School of Art since 2007. In autumn 2012, Meksin will be visiting assistant professor in painting and drawing at Denison University in Granville, OH.

For information, go to http://swingspace.osu.edu/ or call (614) 292-0234