Jeremy DePrez unveiled a silly little collection of works entitled “syntaxerrors” in the Project Gallery on the fourth floor of the art building. It was a show of sorts with no real underlying theme or overbearing message.
“It’s a collection of sh** I enjoy,” DePrez said.
Trash bags filled with discarded images, paintings piled in a corner, Doctor Who references throughout the small space and a small scrolling marquee left its mark on the viewer expecting something a little more typical.
To the untrained eye, and certainly without the help of an interview, a viewer might overlook the subtleties of the work and not realize that the garbage bags were actually grocery bags painted the color of garbage bags, and the tape that held up the Doctor Who poster wasn’t tape at all, but again another color match of paint.
Certainly it could be identified throughout his work, but again another set of images caught some viewers’ eyes and more importantly their minds.
“It isn’t a typical show,” DePrez said. “Just an excuse to do whatever. It’s a personal show that’s hyper audio-biographical in a weird way. In the art world, we are repressed into this mode of thinking where things need to have meaning — but it’s just s*** that I like.”
Though to some it was merely typical.
“It just didn’t do it for me,” said a student at the Gallery.
Other odd pieces of work include a section of framed drywall, a conceptual work that was an homage to Don Lon Golden, DePrez said.
From his attempt at a cinderblock made out of paint to his explanation of a cyclical universe theory in a painting to his tongue-in-cheek jab at Disney with his reproduction of their color series space suit gray and galaxy black, the graduate student’s show was amazing to some and distasteful to others, but to all was certainly an experience.