Colter Jacobsen

Tommaso Corvi-Mora is thrilled to present an exhibition of new work by Colter Jacobsen, his seventh at the gallery.

“There are a few things to have in mind when looking at Colter Jacobsen’s art. First, he is less interested in creating something new than in seeing something already there. Which doesn’t mean his art is unsurprising. In fact, his art is all about surprise, the amazement of noticing something you hadn’t seen before. He shows us these things by the power of his memory, imagination, and sort of twisted logic that we can call poetry.

Second, he is embarrassed by his skill. Artistic talent has had an iffy reputation for the past hundred years or so. There were good reasons for this (i.e. the conservative strangleholds of the French salons and academies) but they no longer apply. But it’s funny how long this prejudice against skill has lived on. I think we’re past it now and you can easily see, in Colter’s work, how important his ability to render is to help us feel deeply the miracles he describes. I think he tries to compensate for his natural talent by welcoming into his work the images of others and, most importantly, fragments of the world—“gorgeous nothings” to borrow a phrase from Jen Bervin--that put his virtuosity in its place.

Lastly, his art is very much like his everyday life. To be Colter is to be awash in nuance, coincidence, and resonance. Everything means something to him. This can be a bit exhausting, I think, and making art about it all probably just makes the layers of association all the more troublesome. So, to balance it out, he has two dogs, two cats, ten chickens, and me.”

—Lawrence Rinder, March 2021