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JEAN LOWE

Light and Space

March 11 – April 22, 2023

Jean Lowe Untitled (Light and Space #6), 2023

Jean Lowe
Untitled (Light and Space #6), 2023
Casein on wood panel
84 x 78 in  (213.4 x 198.1 cm)

Jean Lowe Untitled (Light and Space #2), 2022

Jean Lowe
Untitled (Light and Space #2), 2022
Casein on wood panel
48 x 60 in  (121.9 x 152.4 cm)

Jean Lowe Untitled (Light and Space #5), 2023

Jean Lowe
Untitled (Light and Space #5), 2023
Casein on wood panel
60 x 60 in  (152.4 x 152.4 cm)

Jean Lowe Untitled (Light and Space #4), 2023

Jean Lowe
Untitled (Light and Space #4), 2023
Casein on wood panel 
72 x 216 in (182.9 x 548.6 cm)

Jean Lowe  Untitled (Light and Space #1), 2022

Jean Lowe 
Untitled (Light and Space #1), 2022
Casein on wood panel 
60 x 48 in (152.4 x 121.9 cm)

Jean Lowe Small Fire Extinguisher, 2022

Jean Lowe
Small Fire Extinguisher, 2022
Casein on papier mache
7 x 16 x 3.25 in  (17.8 x 40.6 x 8.3 cm)

Jean Lowe Lounge Chair, 2022

Jean Lowe
Lounge Chair, 2022
Enamel on steel, acrylic on canvas, nylon
33 x 29 x 31 in  (83.8 x 73.7 x 78.7 cm)

Jean Lowe Folding Chair, 2014

Jean Lowe
Folding Chair, 2014
Enamel on papier mache
30.5 x 18.5 x 20 in  (77.5 x 47 x 50.8 cm)

Jean Lowe Presentation of Self, 2023

Jean Lowe
Presentation of Self, 2023
Casein on papier mache
10.5 x 9.5 x 1.5 in  (26.7 x 24.1 x 3.8 cm)

Jean Lowe Fix and Flip, 2022

Jean Lowe
Fix and Flip, 2022
Digital pigment print
24 x 36 in  (61 x 91.4 cm)
25 x 37 in  (63.5 x 94 cm) Framed

Jean Lowe The Artist, 2022

Jean Lowe
The Artist, 2022
Digital pigment print
30 x 20 in  (76.2 x 50.8 cm)
31 x 21 in  (78.7 x 53.3 cm) Framed

Jean Lowe The Broker, 2022

Jean Lowe
The Broker, 2022
Digital pigment print
30 x 20 in  (76.2 x 50.8 cm)
31 x 21 in  (78.7 x 53.3 cm) Framed

Jean Lowe The Chef, 2022

Jean Lowe
The Chef, 2022
Digital pigment print
30 x 20 in  (76.2 x 50.8 cm)
31 x 21 in  (78.7 x 53.3 cm) Framed

Jean Lowe The Mechanic, 2022

Jean Lowe
The Mechanic, 2022
Digital pigment print
30 x 20 in  (76.2 x 50.8 cm)
31 x 21 in  (78.7 x 53.3 cm) Framed

Jean Lowe The Performer, 2022

Jean Lowe
The Performer, 2022
Digital pigment print
30 x 20 in  (76.2 x 50.8 cm)
31 x 21 in  (78.7 x 53.3 cm) Framed

Press Release

Luis De Jesus Los Angeles is very pleased to announce Jean Lowe: Light and Space, an exhibition of new paintings, sculptures, photographs, and video, on view in Gallery 2 and Gallery 3 from March 11 – April 22, 2023. An opening reception will be held on Saturday, March 11 from 4 to 7 pm.

Weaving cultural critique with humor, visual pleasure and the occasional sucker punch, the work of San Diego-based painter, sculptor and installation artist Jean Lowe has addressed human vanity—our relationship to other species, the environment, sexism, an insatiable craving for self-help, etc.—for over 35 years. Borrowing vocabularies from art history, literature, film, historic decoration, design, and commercial retail spaces, the artist is known for her labor intensive and fiercely handmade papier- mâche environments as well as paintings of unpeopled interiors.

Lowe’s new work cheekily rejects the notion of artistic hierarchies—specifically, lining up the male dominated and austere SoCal Light and Space movement with paintings of European baroque interiors for a top tier cage fight. She asserts that ultimately both practices have significant overlap—a goal of sensory transcendence and destabilization of observed experience. Her painted interiors combine static and reflected imagery and are intentionally vertiginous in terms of perspective—another parry into the artist’s career-long interest in, and defense of, the possibilities of decoration as a mellifluous, expansive and sometimes exhilarating visual language. In this exhibition, Gallery 2 is loosely constructed as an installation: a folding chair with the absent guard’s reading material (Erving Goffman’s seminal work on social psychology, expounded in his 1956 book The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life) sits adjacent to the paintings, deftly puncturing the idea of the classic white cube.

 

Lowe has recently added videos and still photography (collaborating with Lile Kvantaliani) to her oeuvre. The skits presented in Gallery 3 in the Standard Broadcast video loop strike at serious content matter from unexpected and humorous perspectives. Playing several different characters (female, male, drag, and lesbian) Lowe skirts around content related to gender issues, our relationships to other species, and the environment. The hope is that a surprise left hook may offer the opportunity for reappraisal of settled, orthodox attitudes. This gallery also features funky, handmade “Barcelona” seating for viewing comfort, as well as a selection of stills and behind-the-scenes photos from the video skits. Here, aspirational signaling is free of charge. In spite of the new medium, this work operates in a similar vein to earlier projects, addressing serious topics from unexpected angles with a generous splash of wit.

Jean Lowe received her MFA from the University of California, San Diego, where she taught and lectured from 1992 to 2008. She has been the subject of solo exhibitions at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City; the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego; and the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati. A recent survey of Lowe’s work, Your Place in the Multiverse, opened at the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art, Utah State University in 2021 and traveled to the Laguna Art Museum, CA, in March 2022. Lowe lives and works in the coastal town of Encinitas, CA.

For further information, including images and previews, please call 213-395-0762, or email: gallery@luisdejesus.com.

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