JEFFREY KATZ - venturing into pretty
JEFFERY KATZ
venturing into pretty
July 18-28
Opening reception: Saturday, July 19 6-8pm
Artist Talk with Helen Molesworth: Thursday, July 24th at 6pm
Farm Projects is pleased to present Venturing into Pretty, a solo exhibition of drawings and monotypes by Jeffrey Katz. The show runs from July 18 through July 28, 2025, with a public opening reception on Saturday, July 19 from 6 to 8pm. A conversation between Katz and curator and writer Helen Molesworth will take place at the gallery on Thursday, July 24 at 6pm.
Venturing into Pretty explores the intersections of architecture, decoration, systems, and abstraction through Katz’s rigorous yet playful engagement with line, material, and structure. Trained as an architect and designer, Katz brings a lifetime of thinking about space, order, and function to his studio practice—only here, the rules bend.
Working primarily in monotype and drawing, Katz uses humble materials—thread, drafting templates, acetate, even paper bags—to trace the fine line between form and flourish, grid and gesture, design and decoration. In doing so, he challenges the long-standing hierarchy that separates the rational from the ornamental, and the serious from the “merely” pretty.
“Decoration is often dismissed as feminine, frivolous, or excessive,” Katz writes. “But there is something serious and elegant about plaid. About thread. About making something look good for no reason other than that it looks good.”
From intricately patterned paper bags that riff on prime number sequences to delicate thread prints that mimic woven structure, Katz’s work quietly disrupts design orthodoxy. It asks what happens when the architect lets go of control, when the drawing becomes the object, and when the grid gives way to plaid.
