Jason McLean & Devon Marinac “No Fric(k)tion”

Van Der Plas Gallery

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Van Der Plas presents No Fric(k)tion at the gallery’s location on the Lower East Side, 156 Orchard Street, New York, NY. The exhibition introduces Jason McLean and Devon Marinac, two of the gallery’s represented artists, as collaborators. McLean’s drawing titled No Fric(k)tion (2022) is the inspiration for the title and a key piece that cohesively brings together the visual and conceptual basis for presenting the individual and jointly made work. A mutual friendship between the artists began in Toronto when Marinac interviewed McLean for the University of Toronto newspaper in 2013. Since then, the artists have grown their friendship, have partnered on work together, and continue their mentor (McLean)-mentee (Marinac) rapport. The exhibition hopes to showcase their similar aesthetics of collaged rearrangement and drawn remapping, expression of carnivalesque humor, as well as moments of their collective working practices.

No Fric(k)tion (2022) is about a time when a clash between McLean’s wife and kids caused tension in their household. The imagery of the work, depicted with marker and pencil, portrays a McDonald’s receipt that represents the moment when McLean walked to the corner fast-food restaurant to gain reprieve. The original drawing was on an actual McDonald’s receipt before being transposed to the larger work. Like many of McLean’s mixed media drawings, this piece holds various motifs as representations of the artist’s surroundings. The illustrated memory is a mix of interactions between people and environment through the shapes of the garbage depot, the local brewery, and a bird-like yellow walking figure. The work is a reminder of a moment and a peace truce.

Finally, McLean and Marinac have collaborated on a series of four collages this year titled Scissorhead (2023), Queen of Pike Place (2023), Diamond Faces (2023), and Tic Tac Toe (2023). These multilayered works began when Marinac first laid down the collaged material on paper. As Marinac left them with a mutual intermediary, McLean picked them up while passing through on a trip and began drawing on them. The pieces represent a balance between the artists’ work. The show aims at being a prosthetic of these four pieces, extending their meaning, and showcasing the shared talent of both artists.]

Jason McLean – Bio
Brooklyn based Canadian artist, Jason McLean, creates autobiographical imagery, through scavenged objects, and memory mapping. Jason McLean’s diverse art practice includes sculpture, sound works, zines, book works, mixed-media installations, correspondence art, curatorial explorations, puppets, and performance, but he is probably best known for his diaristic mapping and surreal drawings. Inspirations fueling his daily observations are relationships with local and visited environments. His works are often described as mental maps, where samplings of his daily observations are mashed-up into antiheroic, yet poignant combinations. Grounded in family life as Husband and Father, McLean works by using humour to touch upon challenging subject matter, such as sadness, loss, displacement, and economic hardship.

Devon Marinac – Bio
Devon Marinac (b. 1988) is a Canadian visual artist who was born in North Vancouver and currently resides in Toronto. Marinac’s practice involves drawing, collage, painting, assemblage, sculpture, and bookmaking, often in combination. His work possesses a strong graphic sensibility through a highly detailed figurative style, which translates and mutates according to the medium being used. While the images are often fantastical, the pieces are nevertheless rooted in day-to-day locales, observations, and autobiography. Through recycling and reimagining found materials, Marinac uses art as a vehicle to understand his own life and the world around him, often in poignant and comical ways.]