Kenkeleba house
Kenkeleba house and the Wilmer Jennings gallery

Gerald Jackson

   Gerald Jackson: Recent Releases, II
November 27, 2020 - January 30, 2021

 

Installation Photography : Christian Carone

Image Photography : Rodríguez Calero

 
 

Press Release

Gerald Jackson: Recent Releases, II 

Review

From November 27, 2020 to January 30, 2021, the Wilmer Jennings Gallery at Kenkeleba is pleased to present an exhibition of works by urban conceptual artist Gerald Jackson. Gerald Jackson: Recent Releases, II, is composed of 42 works on canvas and paper that demonstrate a range of his creativity. 

Jackson studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago before moving to New York. In 1965 he received a Brooklyn Museum School scholarship in drawing and painting. He was represented by Allan Stone Gallery from 1968 to 1990. Jackson has had solo exhibitions at Artists Space, Gallery 128, Rush Arts, Strike Gallery, Jack Tilton Gallery, Tribes and Kenkeleba. Major group shows include The Real Great Society, New Black Artists at the Brooklyn Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Museum of Art and Design and The Newark Museum of Art. His illustrated book of 79 color linoleum prints and text, Adventures in Ku-Ta-Ba Wa-Do, published in 1973 is in the print collection of The Metropolitan Museum, the Museum of Modern Art’s art book collection and the Library at Lincoln Center.  

Jackson’s work stems from his association with the Abstract Expressionist painters on New York City’s Lower East Side in the 1960s and 1970s. Profoundly influenced by the circle of progressive artists, musicians and writers, Jackson, the consummate multi-disciplinary artist, also emerged as a poet. A selection of seven figurative works, mixed-media paper collages from his Divine Providence series, includes esoteric text, and embedded poems as in She Divine Providence and Self Portrait. In the early 1980s Jackson created a suite of four small square paintings. In these, he uses a grid structure with patterns of blue, yellow, red, cobalt, viridian, purple and orange to create collaged motifs. The rich colors, hues and combinations he achieves are reflective of an intense deliberation about composition and color.

This exhibition presents a comprehensive gathering of Jackson’s blue green paintings. The series actually began in 1989, and in 2014 Jackson made a return to the blue green palette. The preoccupation with blue green is his examination of color relationships and their effect on the observer. In what could be viewed as a meditative exercise, it is Jackson’s intent to heal using the curative properties of blue green. Of the thirty-six blue green paintings on view, the works on paper, with dots and stripes against a white background, offer some levity in contrast to the rich texture of the acrylics on canvas.

For nearly 50 years, Jackson has explored Abstraction and Color Field painting. The body of work in Gerald Jackson: Recent Releases, II is a historical survey of some of his finest paintings made between 1980 and 2020. 

Kenkeleba programs are funded in part by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and many generous friends.

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