Juliet Jacobson “There Is Nothing Perfectly Beautiful Except The Invisible”

Two Rams

poster for Juliet Jacobson “There Is Nothing Perfectly Beautiful Except The Invisible”

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Two Rams presents There Is Nothing Perfectly Beautiful Except The Invisible, Juliet Jacobson’s first solo show with Two Rams.

The exhibition features graphite and colored pencil drawings based on photographs of vernacular objects. During the last year the artist introduced two new elements into her practice, color and composite imagery.

Jacobson meticulously renders simple objects such as mirrors, plastic bags, and folded pieces of paper. All subject matter is reproduced in actual size. By focusing on the blank spaces in a mirror or the folds in a piece of paper, the artist illuminates the empty spaces of objects and the secret life harbored within.

In order to reproduce an image faithfully by hand, the artist strips quotidian perception of an objects values and preconceptions. The abstraction implicit in two-dimensional art requires an attitude of equanimity toward the qualities of a given subject, be they physical, psychological, or symbolic. Abundant mythologies attend these objects, but Jacobson’s portrayal resists such myths by dramatizing blunt matter.

Jacobson represents the particularity of objects, not their generic or universal quality. Creases in paper or scratches on the surface of a mirror belong to the singularity of individual things. Heedful of such idiosyncrasies, the artist reproduces them in fine detail. A single object may be reproduced repeatedly with the same studious care, each art work a testament to prosaic changes. Differences unfold through sustained engagement in series. Such variation can result from an alternative perspective, a fluctuation in light, or grime being wiped away.

Highlighting the corporeality of her subjects, the artist pushes them close to the picture plane and captures them using a detailed, all-over composition. Illusion also plays a role in this narrow field. Using trompe l’oeil, Jacobson toys with visual deception as she renders the creases of paper and the enigmatic space that sits beyond the dirty surface of a mirror.

Still, the material remains somewhat withdrawn. The paper is blank, the screens are broken, and the mirrors reflect only subtle shifts in light. Using both repetition across series and hyper focus within each drawing, Jacobson’s vernacular objects are unloosed from their referents, donning a more cryptic facade. With an attention to surface, pattern, texture, and light, each artwork verges on abstraction.
Juliet Jacobson (b. 1977, Washington) is a New York based artist. She received her MFA from New York University. Jacobson’s most recent work has been exhibited at Season in Seattle, Schneiderei Gallery in Vienna, with the Sphinx curatorial project and at Blackston Gallery in New York. She was an artist in residence at the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts and the Catwalk Institute in 2014. She teaches at New York University, Steinhardt School Department of Art and Art Professions.

Media

Schedule

from May 21, 2015 to June 08, 2015

Opening Reception on 2015-05-21 from 19:00 to 21:00

Artist(s)

Juliet Jacobson

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