BEGIN BEING, 2019. Acrylic on drop cloth, 138 x 177 inches (350.5 x 449.6 cm)
NOW (V), 2018. Watercolor on found wood, 15 1/2 x 15 1/2 inches (37.3 x 37.3 cm)
Ghost wood (Japanese Pagoda), 2018. Graphite on paper, 8 1/2 x 6 7/8 inches (21.6 x 17.5 cm)
memory w/o words (after Dorsky), 2018. Graphite and watercolor on paper, 15 3/4 x 18 3/4 inches (40 x 47.6 cm)
Ghost Wood (flying female figure-Tiepolo), 2017. Found postcards, lemon juice, 12 1/4 x 8 3/4 inches (31.1 x 22.2 cm)
Colter Jacobsen (b. 1975) lives and works in San Francisco, CA. He earned his BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2001 and is a recipient of SFMoMA’s prestigious SECA Art Award (2010), which granted him a solo exhibition at the museum in 2011. His work has been exhibited in numerous solo exhibitions, including hour fault, Anglim Gilbert Gallery, San Francisco (2019); Essays, Callicoon Fine Arts, New York (2018); This Is How We Walk on The Moon: Colter Jacobsen, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego La Jolla, California (2014); Searchin’ vs. Buildin’, LAXART, Los Angeles (2010); and The Exhibition Formerly Known as Passengers, CCA Wattis Institute, California College of Arts, Oakland. Group exhibitions include Mythos, Psyche, Eros: Jess and California (2019), and A Slow Succession with Many Interruptions (2016–17), both at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMoMA); People’s Biennial, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (2014); Artists & Editions, Wattis Institute for Contemporary Art (2013); and the 12th Istanbul Biennial (2011). His work can be found in the collections of the San Fransisco Museum of Modern Art and KADIST, both in San Francisco, California; The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, California; and The Museum of Everything, London.
In a time of such political turmoil, is it still important to appreciate beauty? How is music, poetry, or art relevant? As scientists are finding the rate of climate change is faster than they expected, how are we to connect to these frightening statistics? Are we separate from a hurricane? How to describe our brief life, our signature, our fault-line, our now, our place. Can we discover a reliance of we, a we of forests, oceans, animals, storms?
With the graphite work, ‘Don’t let your right hand know what your left hand is going through’, I set myself the simple task to draw my left hand using my right hand and vice-versa. A companion piece to this work depicts two hands held together as in prayer (the hands are also holding a praying mantis.)
I give a nod to concrete poetry in the word paintings— where the letters themselves become the colors and shapes of the composition. In the series I’m calling ‘Now’ paintings, the word “now” in cursive is repeated and spinning so that the “o” of now is at its center. It is an attempt to bring us into the present moment.
Two works act as memorials to friends who have passed away. In ‘Down time with Act Up’, a casual snapshot of members from Act Up London share smiles and beers while an old friend of mine, Adam Block, appears in the corner, taking what appears to be a selfie (before the term selfie existed.) And ‘Bouquet for K.K.’ is a flower arrangement from a friend’s wedding that has taken on the spirit of a recently deceased friend, Kevin Killian.
– Colter Jacobsen
From July 2 through July 15th, Colter Jacobsen has curated a solo exhibition of Caitlyn Galloway. Ode to a Galaxy, a group exhibition, will be installed July 17 through July 30th, also organized by Jacobsen. On July 15th, poems by Bernadette Meyer will be read by Norma Cole, Rod Roland, Sara Larsen, and Jason Morris, 6–9pm.
Jacobsen has been honored by The Pollock-Krasner Foundation for the 2018–19 grant cycle.
