Paul Jacobsen: Out Through the Inside
December 6 - December 9, 2017
KHORASHEH + GRUNERT, New York
paul jacobsen’s exhibition Out Through the Inside is comprised of a recent painting, a drawing and a hand knotted rug designed by Jacobsen and produced by Equator Production.
Jacobsen created his new hawk painting by photographing and then painting the image of a wooden box and it’s changing contents. This new oil painting is not only a cabinet of curiosity but by using the box as a view finder it becomes a landscapes too. The viewfinder box is the same dimensions as the panel on which the final painting is made, thus ensuring that everything in the painting is on a one to one scale. This intimate painting provides a view out, one that transports the viewer to the pastures and clouded skies of the area surrounding Jacobsen’s home and studio in Germantown NY. Using a box to compose painting echoes the rectangle of the painting which in turn is a miniature of the walls on which it is hung. In deciding to show the edges of this view finder, Jacobsen draws attention to the act of framing and the blocking out of unnecessary noise. By putting limits on the infinitude of the universe, the artist helps the viewer forget or at least to hold the outside world with all its madness at a distance and focus in on the beauty of the moment. In that way the frame acts very similar to the camera lens as a mediation between you and the scene showing not only what the artist sees but how the artist sees it.
Jacobsen recently collaborated with Petra Singh of Equator Productions to produce a hand knotted rug. The design, conceived by Jacobsen, portrays intricately woven psychedelic patterns which recall the wall prints of William Morris.
paul jacobsen was born in Denver in 1976. He grew up in a small mountain town in Colorado, raised by a family of artists. Drawing on his youth in the rural American West, Jacobsen considers the intersection of nature and technology in a multimedia body of work that references intimate personal experiences, countercultural rituals, and the aesthetics of Americana. In lush, somewhat satirical still lives and landscapes that employ traditional painting styles and photographic techniques, Jacobsen offers a bucolic, sublime escape from contemporary consumerism, industry, and innovation. Foregoing a formal art degree, Jacobsen studied in Florence at Lorenzo De Medici Instituto de Arte and was head painter in the studios of Jeff Koons and Rudolf Stingel. His works have been exhibited at MASS MoCA and the Aspen Art Museum, among other institutions. Jacobsen lives and works between Rico, Colorado and Brooklyn, New York.
KHORASHEH + GRUNERT is a curatorial platform by curator Mitra Khorasheh within Tanja Grunert Gallery that materializes from time to time at 524 West 19th Street, NY, and beyond. The project will be programmed by Khorasheh, whose curatorial work focuses on site-specific and performative practices, with an emphasis on the body in performance, painting and other time-based media.
