2006–2007
511
west 25 th street, new york, ny www.cueartfoundation.org
10001
jasmine justice
J a s m i n e ju s t i ce
CUE Art Foundation April 26 – June 2, 2007
Curated by David Reed
Foreword
We are honored and grateful to present this exhibition generously curated by David Reed. For the CUE solo exhibition series, Mr. Reed has chosen fellow artist, Jasmine Justice, who lives and works in New York. Ms. Justice is admired by her peers as an artist who has forged a unique artistic voice. Reed’s appreciation of Justice’s work demonstrates just such admiration.
CUE is pleased to recognize that this is Ms. Justice’s first solo exhibition in New
York. Mr. Reed and we, together, celebrate this effort and wish her a future of fulfillment and success.
This exhibition is supported in part by ??
LEAD SPONSOR OF 2006-07 SEASON OF EXHIBITION CATALOGUES: KYESUNG PAPER GROUP (SOUTH KOREA) ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY ELIZABETH FIRESTONE GRAHAM FOUNDATION
Artist's Statement
Jasmine Justice
Curator's Statement
David Reed
I don’t ever want to know what a piece will look like until it’s finished. I make art to develop new
Diamonds are…
mental avenues and experience them in the physical realm, exploring and meditating upon
(Big Rock Candy)
unknowns, thinking and making as simultaneously as possible. I’ll get a strong feeling about a very particular shade of green and a compulsion to
I first saw Jasmine Justice’s work when I was a visiting artist at Rutgers (Fancy). I liked the
put it into play. As the piece progresses I hold loosely to green’s role, its dominance fluctuating. If it
rough physicality and materiality of her paintings (Plus or Minus). I especially remember seeing
escapes I might not notice immediately. It might lead to recognizable imagery, or not. Incidents are
a green painting that had been worked over many times (Chloro-fill) and a sheet of glass leaning
allowed to remain at the brink of clarity or finish. The early stages of mental emergence are worth
against the wall with clotted, dripping yellow paint (Grape Crush)—a piece that was hard to
appreciating. I have a fondness for these blunt yet malleable syntactical units, which conversely
call a painting (Grit). We spoke during that first meeting about ’70s experimental abstraction
arouse my appetite for lavish, painterly activity.
(Seventies Secretion). I like the way the physicality of her paintings can turn into an image (Urban Orbs), a doubling that never seems possible, even as one sees it (Hovercrop). Looking at the paintings for this show, this doubling reminds me of Gilles Deleuze’s description of crystal-form as a kind of form in which the actual and virtual images are so united one can no longer distinguish which is which (Recycled (Kiss)). In Jasmine’s paintings this crystal-form is complicated again by being both figurative and abstract (Calamity Jane). Her paintings are very theatrical (Skirt). As proof, she is very good with titles (Busypark). I wish that I could think of such excellent titles for my paintings (Headlights). Her paintings seem to have a story behind them (Savior (Isis Painting)). What stories do they make with their doublings and combinations (Blushing Bride)? Why do we want to follow these stories (Painter’s Tears)? David Reed, January 23, 2007
Grape Crush, 2006 Acrylic and oil on canvas, 24" x 24"
Conjoined Twins, 2006 Oil on canvas, 28" x 22"
Nestle, 2006 Acrylic and oil on canvas, 16" x 12"
Headlights, 2006 Flashe and acrylic on canvas, 18" x 18"
Skirt, 2006 Acrylic and oil on canvas, 48" x 46"
Big Rock Candy, 2006 Acrylic on canvas, 44" x 42"
Urban Orbs, 2007 Flashe and acrylic on canvas, 16" x 12"
Fancy, 2007 Flashe, acrylic and oil on canvas, 18" x 18"
Savior (Isis Painting), 2006 Acrylic and oil on canvas, 36" x 36"
Recycled (Kiss), 2007 Acrylic and oil on canvas, 48" x 48"
In Conversation
Wendy White and Jasmine Justice
January 2007
Wendy White: In many of your paintings–for
finish. I’m not sure if it’s like this for you, but
example, the large one called Recycled (Kiss)
when things are going well I get so excited
–there are dueling “compartments” in which
about where I’m going that I can hardly
you attack separate but linked formal issues.
contain myself enough to finish it.
You tend to show the different possibilities for a line, a shape, or a combination of things,
WW: Oh yeah, definitely. Sometimes
rather than delineating one independent
finishing feels hollow to me... like, why
solution. When you’re painting, are you
bother just to make something look a certain
presenting yourself with problems, resolving
way when you’ve conceptually moved on
them, and moving on... or is your process
already? But that said, your paintings have
largely intuitive?
an unencumbered-ness to them... I think somehow you’re managing to finish them
Jasmine Justice: I don’t usually start off with
without adding any “finishing touches” – that’s
a specific plan. Usually it’s more of a scenario
the best part. Are you conscious of that? Are
that I’m curious about. I try to have a studio
you ever trying to reconcile “decorative” or
practice that will provide me with a wide range
“painterly” aspects?
of experiences. I like contrasting the qualities or circumstances inside paintings against one
JJ: I try to be really aware of what point they
another. Often I feel compelled to create a
might become bogged down or hermetically
counter situation or alternative reality as a sort
sealed. I like to leave things open ended,
of antidote to an arising circumstance within
sometimes really rough or sketchy. Some of
a piece.
my strongest visual experiences have come from looking at highly ornate mosques, Hindu
WW: So how do you decide where to stop? Do
Temples. And I love Art Nouveau poster
you sometimes finish a painting (or problem)
borders and other decorated or densely
within another painting?
patterned surfaces, especially those indicating otherworldly devotion. Patterning that
Plus or Minus, 2007 Acrylic and Flashe on canvas, 16" x 12"
JJ: It can be really hard to stop. If I don’t know
approaches the tacky or sassy can also be
where to go with something I put it away for
great, really bratty and obnoxious. Sometime
a while, in some cases for months. Sometimes
I mimic these types of experiences with
a really simple painting takes a long time to
varying degrees of bluntness.
WW: I think you’re doing that successfully…
spirits, especially if they are female
WW: Extracting... that’s such a great way to
WW: Nothing’s off-limits. I think if you’re
incorporating existing motifs and letting them
(who’ve usually been overlooked) and/or
look at it. It reminds you why you like things
really invested and not naïve about it
become new and indescribable objects, all
new discoveries to me. For now I’m not
and gives meaning to reaction, which always
everything falls into place. I mean, don’t
without assigning history to them. I guess it
as interested in spending much time in
gets the shaft. Channeling is an interesting
you see work all the time that is a hair away
relates to process more than intent. At least
the same place.
word, too... sort of a WWJD kind of thing,
from being totally ridiculous, but somehow
with a slightly voodoo component. I like
manages to ride the line? It doesn’t matter if it has discernable cultural relevance or not.
that’s how it comes across. There’s a familiarity to some of your combinations, yet it’s vague
WW: Your paintings are more like individual
that. Earlier, you mentioned being drawn to
enough and slightly disparate enough not
battles, like you’ve got a bone to pick with
patterns. I always get hung up on the idea of
Too far in the safe zone is not challenging
to be nostalgic or homage-like. Then there’s
each one. They’re very personified. Do they
connotations and borrowed history, but your
enough, and too gratuitously absurd can be
joyfulness and an openness that I think relate
ever seem figurative to you? Or does that
paintings evade that immediate read.
insulting...I guess it comes back to intention
directly to how you apply paint. You’re not
word make your skin crawl...I mean, they’re not
afraid to cover things up and push things into
abstract, really...
weird awkward places, but it’s never formulaic.
and one’s chosen audience. Choosing to JJ: And although there IS extracting, it’s not
see yourself as connected to other artists,
always consciously directed or pre-meditated.
throughout history, is a pretty beautiful way to
You don’t really push things the same way
JJ: “Figurative” can be really repulsive,
I try to not always be aware of what I’m
keep genuine momentum going. I don’t think
twice. Don’t you think that style is the biggest
depending on how it’s used. Often it’s used
channeling, sometimes determining that
real artists regurgitate anyway. They have too
life-sucker there is? It’s boring.
to refer to works that have depictions of
when I step away and look at it. It can be
much imagination and compulsion to stay
people in them and is pitted against the term
wonderfully surprising. I think reaction
interested that way.
JJ: …and exhausting, waiting for certain styles
abstraction. Abstraction in this sense doesn’t
gets the shaft because intuition and less
to go out of fashion! I’m more interested in
even mean abstraction. It means that it isn’t a
nameable sources are highly distrusted and
JJ: I think seeing this connection to other
disparate variety. I like thinking about whom
straightforward landscape, still life or person
I think reacting often comes from those
artists can be an act of love and kindness, a
I would like to show with, from this time or
painting. This “pitting against” can really just
places. “Channeling” is a useful term and can
way of connecting yourself to other people
a previous one. How far (thousands of years
distract us from what a work is really about.
be a powerful experience because it implies
and celebrating life.
or a few minutes) can I reach out and hold
They are false categories.
a flattening out of time, where we all exist at
the hands or brushes of other painters. I
My works can be figurative in the sense that
once, on the same plane. I usually don’t try
Wendy White is an artist and writer. She lives
went to the Société Anonyme: Modernism
they relate to different parts of the body. I will
to evade but I feel it can be really restrictive
and works in New York.
for America show at The Hammer Museum
imbue anything with a bodily function. They
to get too mired in a particular moment. But
in LA last summer and felt ecstatic to be
aren’t a version or abstraction of anything
don’t you think there are influences we can or
wandering around with so many interesting
that already exists. I guess they are more like
should be really brave about having, almost
and unfamiliar ghosts like Sophie Taeuber-Arp
extraction-inventions.
like a responsibility? We don’t want anything
and Oskar Fischinger. I really love the notion of
to be off limits, do we? It’s really important to
channeling, you know—opening up to artists’
question who gets to be the decider.
Biography
Jasmine Justice
Biography
David Reed
Jasmine Justice was born in 1972 in West Virginia. As a child she moved to Wyoming, Idaho, and
David Reed is a painter. Born in California, he moved to Lower Manhattan in 1971, where he
Washington and has also lived in Helsinki and Istanbul. At age 13 she became involved with the
continues to live and work. Since 1976, he has been represented in New York by Max Protetch
thriving punk scene of Spokane, WA and its visual arts subculture. She then moved to Seattle, WA
Gallery. His first show in Europe was with Galerie Ricke in Cologne in 1989, and he has also been
where she received a BFA in printmaking, from the University of Washington in 1997. Two years
showing in Europe with Galerie Xippas in Paris; Galerie Bob van Orsouw in ZĂźrich; and Galerie
later she moved to New York and worked as a printmaker before attending Rutgers University, NJ
Schmidt Maczollek in Cologne. In 1998, David Reed Paintings: Motion Pictures, a traveling exhibition
where she received an MFA in 2003. She now lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. She participated in
and publication was organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA. Leave Yourself
residencies at Painting’s Edge, Idyllwild, CA (2003 and 2006) and at the Atlantic Center for the
Behind: Paintings and Special Projects 1967-2005, another traveling exhibition and publication was
Arts (ACA), in New Smyrna Beach, FL (2006), and has recently been included in group exhibitions
organized by the Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita, KS in 2005.
at HIGH ENERGY CONSTRUCTS in Los Angeles, CA; Domo Gallery in Summit, NJ; The Riverside Art Museum in Riverside, CA, and ZieherSmith Inc. in New York, NY. Her 2007 show at CUE Art Foundation marks her first solo exhibition.
Mission Statement
CUE Art Foundation
CUE Art Foundation, a 501 (c)(3) non-profit arts organization,
Board of Directors
is dedicated to providing a comprehensive creative forum for
Gregory Amenoff
contemporary art by supporting under-recognized artists via a
Theodore S. Berger
multi-faceted mission spanning the realms of gallery exhibitions,
Patricia Caesar
public programming, professional development programs and
Thomas G. Devine
arts-in-education. The Foundation was established in June of 2002
Thomas K. Y. Hsu
with the aim of providing educational programs for young artists
Brian D. Starer
and aspiring art professionals in New York and from around the country. These programs draw on the unique community of artists,
Advisory Council
critics, and educators brought together by the Foundation’s season
Gregory Amenoff
of exhibitions, public lectures, workshops, and its studio residency
William Corbett
program: all are designed to be of lasting practical benefit to
Deborah Kass
aspiring and under-recognized artists. The entire CUE identity is
Kris Kuramitsu
characterized by artistic quality, independent judgment and the
Jonathan Lethem
discovery of genuine talent, and provides long-term benefits both
Lari Pittman
for creative individuals associated with CUE and the larger art
Irving Sandler
marketplace. Located in New York’s Chelsea gallery district, CUE’s 4,500 square feet of gallery, studio and office space serves as the
executive Director
nexus for educational programs and exhibitions conducted by CUE.
Jeremy Adams
programs coordinator Cover: Urban Orbs (detail), 2007 Flashe and acrylic on canvas, 16” x 12”
Beatrice Wolert-Weese
All artwork © Jasmine Justice
programs assistant
Photo credits: Jesse Farber
Kara Smith
Catalog designed by Elizabeth Ellis preparator Printed on TriPine paper of KyeSung Paper Group (South Korea) Cover: TriPine Art Nouveau 209gsm (78lb), Text: TriPine Silk 157gsm (106lb) Printer: Yon Art Printing (South Korea) ISBN 13: 978-0-9791843-4-5 ISBN 10: 0-9791843-4-7
Drew Lichtenstein