Exhibition

SAM JACKSON | Colossal Youth (Part 2)

28 Mar 2014 – 2 May 2014

Regular hours

Friday
11:00 – 18:00
Saturday
11:00 – 18:00
Wednesday
11:00 – 18:00
Thursday
11:00 – 18:00

Cost of entry

FREE

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Charlie Smith London

London, United Kingdom

Address

Travel Information

  • Bus: 8, 26, 48, 55, 67, 388
  • Tube: Old St (Exit 2) or Liverpool St
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SAM JACKSON | Colossal Youth (Part 2)

About

CHARLIE SMITH LONDON is delighted to present Sam Jackson with his third one person exhibition at the gallery. ‘Colossal Youth (Part 2)' represents the second phase of a body of work that takes as its starting point the topography of youth sub-culture, with the first phase being Jackson's recent solo presentation at Volta New York. Influenced by both contemporary and historical high and low culture, Jackson draws here on the iconic photography of Derek Ridgers. Documenting street and club culture in the 1970's and 80's, Ridgers surveyed the vanguard of punk, skinheads and new romantics. The raw urgency and do-it-yourself attitudes embedded within these movements are mirrored in Jackson's instinctively guttural paintings, where his portraits and figures are hewn with text that recalls rough, homemade tattoos and graffiti. The text represents a cognitive statement and a definitive point of reference while the subjects themselves project a sense of contemplative melancholy. Jackson's sexual paintings range from mildly erotic to graphically pornographic. They refer to the overt sexualisation of the postmodern era that manifested itself stylistically in the 1970's in punk and fetish, since when such underground tropes have inevitably come to occupy mainstream culture, encouraged by evermore open media coverage; absorption into high street fashion; de-marginalisation of sexual minorities; and increasing prevalence of internet pornography. This evermore conspicuous sexuality is absorbed by Jackson and filtered from image to painterly surface, undergoing a shift where the transgressive is interwoven with a unique delicacy. The subjects in Jackson's paintings, therefore, derive from various sources, reflecting current tendencies in an image obsessed society in the internet age, where traditional notions of private and public access have been transformed. Images from Polaroids, magazines, video clips and the internet are used to explore the worlds of DIY tattoos, addiction, homemade and amateur pornography, fantasy, excess, youth culture, violence, Baroque and Renaissance painting, failure, literature and music. Sam Jackson graduated in 2007 from the Royal Academy Schools in London and achieved instant recognition by going into the collections of Sir Norman Rosenthal, Kay Saatchi and David Roberts. Since then he has gone on to exhibit in Antwerp, Berlin, Bern, Frankfurt, Helsinki, Klaipeda, Krakow, Los Angeles, Napoli, New York and Rome. Jackson is also featured in private collections in Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, United Kingdom & United States. In 2014 he will feature in 'The Harsh Reality: Modern & Contemporary British Painting' at Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts alongside Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, David Hockney, Jenny Saville, George Shaw & others. Please contact CHARLIE SMITH london for images and further information

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