Pratiksha Shome
Jesse Draxler, an artist, has gone all out to set up his most recent exhibition at Naked Eye Studio in Los Angeles.
Through June 7, “U&I” features a variety of his works, including painted panels, conceptual sculptures, and digital media, all of which are placed in a setting that the artist himself conceptualised and created. In addition to dishes of pizza, the opening night featured live performances by artists like industrial noise musician God Is War as well as projections of ongoing videos that follow Draxler’s own creative process.
When it came to conceptualising and setting up the exhibition, the artist said, “It has been an exercise in building a world for my work to live within.” “I believe that my works have never been displayed properly, in a setting that was intended for it, or in their full breadth so that you can see it all at once,” the artist said.
“U&I” was a year in the making, according to Draxler, and was inspired by his ambition to develop his “inner world” on his own, without the help of a gallery. The end product, in which the artist’s distinct aesthetic is given licence to roam, has been hailed as his most significant solo exhibition to date.
The defining characteristics of Draxler’s work are well-established: his paintings, photographs, and collages frequently feature shocking transformations of the human face or other visual aberrations and are delivered in harsh black-and-white, evoking both existential dread and an atmospheric tension. His continual investigations into change are channelled through his work, according to Draxler, who stated that “transformation through identity, identity through transformation.”
He went on to say, “I’m very interested in relationships, but mostly relationships between a person and themselves, a person and their various cells, a person and their subconscious, and a person and their environment, and how these relationships inform our perceptions and create each of our own unique realities that we each live in.
Source: Artnet news
