signs and symbols

Paul Jacobsen: Light Work  

March 30 - April 29, 2023        

Opening Reception:
March 30, 2023
6:00 - 8:00pm

signs and symbols is pleased to present Light Work by Paul Jacobsen, the artist's second solo exhibition at the gallery featuring six new paintings. Long interested in the techniques and tools that reveal the mechanisms of art-making, exemplified by his signature photographic lens flares in previous series, his latest works pursue similarly elusive subjects: the conditions of light and the invisible systems of material and labor. Light Work thus considers the interplay of the formal elements of painting and the structural underpinnings of daily life, blending trompe-l'oeil illusions with a bold color palette.

The first of Jacobsen's unlikely subjects are the wooden frames that support a painting's shape, protect it during crated transportation, and even give structure to the walls on which it hangs. Typically covered by linen or drywall, this pine wood instead provides the literal framework of Jacobsen's compositions — not only underneath the canvas, but forming the geometric shapes rendered in the paintings. These abstracted wooden constructions make up the conditions for the artist to explore prismatic light in a box, playfully manipulating shadow and perspective to create a sense of depth. In some works, the pine is exclusively depicted; in others, real wood is exposed along the edge, complicating any simple interpretation of what is represented and what is present, what is visible and what is concealed.

Another recurring figure is the lowly gas can, an everyday object in Jacobsen's barn and an emblem of daily life where he lives and works in the Hudson Valley. A measure of daily energy requirements, the gas can is an essential feature of modern times, running the machines that work the land, deliver food and artificially light up our spaces. In a wash of ethereal pinks and violets, Jacobsen embraces the gas can and invites us to recognize the beauty and value of the care that goes into our everyday chores and routines, finding the sublime in the quotidien.

The paintings in Light Work further draw connections between minimalism and the luminism movement in landscape painting. As an artist based in upstate New York, Jacobsen has found a particular commonality with the Hudson River School, as he grapples with natural and visual phenomena and how such experiences can be mediated through art and technology. But in these works, a manmade box forms the terrain of a landscape, and awe is found not in nature but in labor.

An acknowledgment of the artist's own years spent as an assistant and art handler, and a meditation on those who continue to facilitate the art world behind the scenes, Jacobsen celebrates the beauty and value of care and maintenance in both life and art.

paul jacobsen was born in Denver, Colorado 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 upstate in Germantown, New York and Rico, Colorado.