Jesse Bercowetz
Jesse Bercowetz received his BFA from The School of The Art Institute of Chicago, and Matt Bua received his BFA from East Carolina University, NC. Bercowetz and Bua's most recent projects have been featured at The Brooklyn Museum, Exit Art, Socrates Sculpture Park, The Drawing Center, Feigen Contemporary and PS1 / Moma. Their work has been reviewed in a number of publications such as Artforum, the New York Times, Time Out/NY, The New Yorker, the Village Voice, and Teme Celeste. Bercowetz and Bua have received several awards including a Jerome Foundation fellowship, Smack Mellon Studios stipend and residency, Bessie award for multi-media installation and performance, The Joan Mitchell Foundation Artist / Mentor Residency and the Henry Moore Foundation Contemporary Project Grant.
Bercowetz/Bua's work crosses disciplines and actively engages the community. Recently, it has been an investigation into the acts of youth deviance, social escapism, dissidence, utopian architecture and mobility. Often blurring the lines between work, play, manhood and boyhood. The process is elastic--crossing genres, mixing materials, and collaborating with others. The projects are often interactive with an exterior and interior. The subject matter is vast, experiential and vaguely didactic. Reality and fantasy collide--realistic situations are pushed to a fantasy level and that fantasy is treated as serious as real life.