Jameson Green

Derek Eller Gallery is pleased to open our temporary exhibition space in Santa Monica, CA with new paintings by Jameson Green. This is Green's first solo show on the West Coast.

Entitled Aut Viam Inveniam Aut Faciam which translates as “I will either find a way or make one”, Green’s exhibition explores the tragedy and promise inherent to the human condition in a visual vernacular informed by comics, caricatures, outsider art, and the western canon. Green’s expressionistic figurative compositions are ambiguous allegories which touch on issues of sacrifice, perseverance, the power of speech, and corruption. Without being didactic, the narratives present familiar scenarios with the possibility for open-ended interpretations.

The theme of resilience in the face of adversity runs through several works in the show, as multiple subjects are depicted dancing despite seemingly dire circumstances. A loan figure marooned on a rowboat claps and steps high. In another scene, inspired by The Beggars (The Cripples) by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, two figures with faces rendered in exaggerated caricature awkwardly dance with wooden legs and crutches on a kind of stage. Are these celebratory, even comical, moments or utterly hopeless predicaments? A third scene pictures repression: a figure with a black hood and flamboyant red, white, and blue shorts is restrained by several grotesque men, arranged in a manner reminiscent of The Night, Max Beckmann’s horrific painting of war-torn Germany. Like a sacrificial saint, the central figure is surrounded by his attributes, in this case, crudely rendered crows which evoke self-taught artist Bill Traylor. Does this painting offer a commentary on the state of national politics? If so, the underlying moral stance is uncertain.

Jameson Green (b. 1992, lives and works in upstate New York) received a BFA from School of Visual Arts in 2014 and an MFA from Hunter College in 2019. He has had recent solo exhibitions at Almine Rech, Paris and London and Sorry We're Closed, Brussels. Green's work has been featured in recent group shows including On Ugliness, Medieval and Contemporary, Skarstedt Gallery, London, UK; Fire Figure Fantasy: Selections from ICA Miami's Collection at ICA Miami; When You See Me: Visibility in Contemporary Art/History, Dallas Museum of Art; and The Echo of Picasso, Museo Picasso Málaga, Málaga, Spain. His paintings are included in the permanent collections of Dallas Museum of Art; Pérez Art Museum, Miami; Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France; High Museum of Art, Atlanta; and ICA Miami.