“Jonathan Gardner: Drawings” is a presentation of seven recent graphite works on paper viewable via our Online Viewing Room, and simultaneously exhibited at the gallery in our newly expanded viewing rooms through March 6, 2021.
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Installation view, Jonathan Gardner: Drawings, January 28 - March 6, 2021
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Jonathan Gardner
Portal, 2020
Graphite on paper
Paper size: 10.875 x 8.5" / 27.62 x 21.59cm
Framed: 12.5 x 10"/ 31.75 x 25.4cm
Gardner’s (b. 1982, Lexington, KY) painting and drawing practice consists of imagined tableaus anchored by modern art histories, heavily influenced by the European Surrealists (1920-1950) and the Chicago Imagists (1966-1971). In this new series of works on paper, Gardner manipulates form using peculiar framing devices with collage techniques to transform quotidian leisurely pursuits into illusory worlds.
Beginning with preparatory drawings, Gardner states “I usually get the germ of an idea by drawing in a sketchbook, and then I use tracing paper to expand and experiment with the image. Using tracing paper allows me to combine elements and move them around freely from one drawing to another. I also photocopy drawings to shrink and enlarge them, letting me play with the sense of scale. By combining things that may have come from completely different trains of thought, I am able to surprise myself, and utilize chance as part of the process.”
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Jonathan Gardner
Reader in the Mirror, 2020
Graphite on paper
Paper size: 17.25 x 16"/ 43.82 x 40.64cm
Framed: 19 x 17.75"/ 48.26 x 45.09cm
Artworks such as “Reader in the mirror," which depicts the reflection of a young woman reading a book in repose, utilize surreal framing devices often employed by artists like René Magritte in which illusions of thresholds into other dimensions and paintings within paintings challenge our realities. In “The Dressing Room,” the mirror that frames a nude couple is not only a tool of distortion, complicating the picture plane, but also it is a revealer of hidden truths - for a mirror is said not to lie.
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Installation view, Jonathan Gardner: Drawings, January 28 - March 6, 2021, Casey Kaplan, New York
Absent of the bold colors typical of his paintings, Gardner uses graphite to boost contrast with each hyper-stylized line. In “Portal,” the profile of a long-haired woman is silhouetted by a dark sphere set in a nautical wooden backdrop. The simple gesture of a mysterious ‘portal’ suggests a larger plot at play, never fully revealed.
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Jonathan Gardner
The Menu, 2020
Graphite on paper
Paper size: 10.25 x 17.25"/ 26.04 x 43.82cm
Framed: 12.375 x 15.75"/ 31.43 x 40cm
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Jonathan Gardner
The Bathhouse, 2020
Graphite on paper
Paper size: 20.125 x 18.125" / 51.12 x 46.04cm
Framed: 22 x 20"/ 55.88 x 50.8cm
Established within a mise-en-scène of iconographical movements, Gardner’s compositions integrate archetypes with the memory of a lived experience. His bathing scenes are populated by groups of nude figures lounging and at play in geometric, gridded tile surroundings with meandering subterranean pipes and sculptural steam clouds.
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Installation view, Jonathan Gardner: Drawings, January 28 - March 6, 2021, Casey Kaplan, New York
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Jonathan Gardner
Grand Hotel, 2020
Graphite on paper
Paper size: 21.0625 x 17.75"/ 53.50 x 45.09cm
Framed: 22.75 x 19.375"/ 57.78 x 49.21cm
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Jonathan Gardner
Cool Water, 2020
Graphite on paper
Paper size: 15 x 13.25" / 38.1 x 33.66cm
Framed: 16.75 x 15"/ 42.55 x 38.1cm
Encouraging are the words of Henri Matisse, “What I dream of is an art of balance, of purity and serenity, devoid of troubling or depressing subject-matter...a soothing, calming influence on the mind, something like a good armchair which provides relaxation from physical fatigue.”
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Jonathan Gardner
The Dressing Room, 2020
Graphite on paper
Paper size: 15 x 13.625"/ 38.1 x 34.6cm
Framed: 16.75 x 15.25"/ 42.54 x 38.74cm
