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Saatchi Online's Adam Mendelsohn visited the Brooklyn studio of Matthew Day Jackson shortly before the opening of two exhibitions of new work by the artist in New York. Peter Blum Gallery is showing 'Terranaut' until 1 November, and an installation of drawings at Nicole Klagsbrun until 18 October. See Part 2 of our visit to Matthew Day Jackson's studio below.
In 'Terranaut' Matthew Day Jackson investigates the fundamental themes of death, belief, and transcendence in order to illuminate a sense of lived purgatory. The majority of the works in this show address death in several manifestations from recreations of Francisco de Goya’s The Disasters of War to references to the mass suicide in Jonestown, Guyana. Coupled with these representations of death is Jackson’s emphasis on the importance of creativity as a life force and his continued interest in the concept of the American dream (for example over-size reproductions of paintings by Albert Bierstadt). Jackson sees something redemptive in the relationship between death and creativity, since much of the work alludes to the possibility of transcendence in both material and spiritual forms. His use of salvaged and recycled materials holds explicit communicative values. For Jackson, materials, ideas, and individuals can regenerate into new configurations, which in his aesthetic and philosophical constellation is an affirmation of the creative process.
www.peterblumgallery.com
nicoleklagsbrun.com |
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