Gallery 263 is pleased to announce All Work and No Play, a solo exhibition by Lennon Michelle Wolcott Hernandez. As more artists pursue higher education degrees, the burden of student loan debt finds more of them working full-time jobs while maintaining a studio practice on the side. Lennon knows this first hand: she works full time as an Assistant Director of Graduate Admissions and is a practicing artist. In this solo show, the artist taps into this experience—employing office supplies, traditional craft, and conceptual aesthetics—to explore how having a full-time job impacts artists’ time for creativity and practice.

Patterns and symbols of Lennon’s multicultural American heritage are used to create a show that serves as a self-portrait, broadly defined. Office supplies inspired by her day job, e.g., Post-it Notes, travel brochures, and pushpins, serve as the materials for the featured two- and three-dimensional assemblages. This dichotomy between office and artist mirrors the visual conversation of bicultural aesthetics. There is a need for artists to toe the line of formal office structure while maintaining their critical and creative thinking practices. This kind of divergent thinking is similar to those who identify with multiple cultures and strive not to lose one culture in favor of another. In All Work and No Play, Lennon finds balance by employing all aspects of her identity.

About the Artist

Lennon Michelle Wolcott Hernandez is a Michigander and Latinx artist who speaks better Japanese than Spanish, is named after a Beatle, and comes from a family line that signed the Declaration of Independence. She completed her Bachelor of Fine Art at Michigan State University. After leaving the Midwest, Lennon attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University for the Post-Baccalaureate Certificate (2015) and Master of Fine Arts (2017) programs. In early 2020, Lennon will present a workshop at the Michigan Indian Educational Council Conference, where her work “Mother 2017” will be featured.