JASON PICKLEMAN- Light Reading by Ken Saunders Gallery

Jason Pickleman Light Reading

Jason Pickleman Light Reading July 12—August 30 2019

Notes on Light Reading by Justin Polera

Biography 52

Checklist 54

Neon Thoughts 58 by Jason Pickleman

Notes on Light Reading by Justin Polera

“Light Reading” marks Jason Pickleman’s first exhibition at Ken Saunders Gallery, and his first solo show in seven years. In it Pickleman presents two intertwined bodies of work, both from his ongoing series of neon sculptures which bring together elements of text-based art and light/space art. Like almost all of Pickleman’s artistic and graphic design works, they move between being read as words and being seen as images; the slippage and liminal space between these ways of experiencing is the nerve center of his practice. These neon sculptures, in particular, are related to drawings in that they are essentially only lines of color in space. Yet they evade easy categorization, as they are not quite full sculpture and not quite wall-based works in the sense of tapestries or paintings. As wall-based sculptures, they are on the wall without ever touching the wall. They hover over the surface and cast light onto it. Pickleman himself is also not easily categorized. He has spent his career making his design practice into an art form. His firm, JNL Graphic Design, which he started in 1992 (at the height of the development of relational aesthetics) is integral to the entire ecosystem of the Chicago Art World. He has worked with everyone, including art book publishers, galleries, project spaces, museums, art fairs and—most importantly— other artists. He is a master of collaboration, and shows that design is an active process of co-creation. This connects him strongly to Duchamp, who saw the work of art as completed by the viewer. Pickleman likens his work to a set designer for the art world, with his contribution blending into the background but making everything on stage (artists, curators, and exhibition makers) possible. Metaphorically talking about his practice he has said “Typography, and by extension design, is a lighting issue.” In “Light Reading” he literally presents neon lights of color. Importantly the colors are primary, unadulterated, pure and like the ones found in strange furniture and lamp shops. Thus, encountering them does not, at first, come across as an art experience. That is to say, the primary experience of being with these works is an emotional response—like being in a darkened room with a lightbulb, much more than standing in a white cube with a painting. The painter Piet Mondrian acts as a strong and direct reference within this body of work. In his lifetime Mondrian moved from representational paintings of trees, mountains, landscapes, and houses to a reduced pictorial vocabulary of only black

Installation view Pluses and Minuses; XXX (pink/orange) 5

Pluses & Minuses (detail)

vertical and horizontal lines with planes of red, yellow, blue coming off of them. It is not such a formal leap to Pickelman’s “Line Works” series, in which a single 68-inch line of neon running on the wall from the floor to the height of an average American male has an added neon element hanging off of it. The transmogrification at work from Mondrian is in the movement from colored paint to colored light, and from the squares of color planes to symbols projecting from a line. What Mondrian did by imposing such strict rules and limitations was open up the combinatory infinitude of any given system. We can, in fact, after entering the exhibition imagine that there is an infinite number of “Line Work” permutations of Pickelman’s strict formula. The most directly related to Mondrian are the works where the single vertical is bisected by horizontal bands, but again it is the light cast onto the wall that creates a field, which expands the line into shape. In one work, the vertical line is a blue neon tube, while the horizontal band could be white, green or blue. The blue on the wall appears most intense behind what may be a white horizontal band. Alternatively, the horizontal band may be blue, but because the background is also blue, the color evaporates into non-color. In either case, the color in the foreground seems to be eradicated by the background noise. This relationship between signal and noise is present within all the exhibited works, both the “Line Work” and the “Repurposed Works”. These signs are related to the digital image-based texts of emojis that we send to each other so often. By using basic symbols, the work reminds us that our seemingly most contemporary form of communication is actually related to our oldest prehistoric glyphs. These pictographs contain contradictions, the line with “xxx” is simultaneously adult-only “x-rated pornography” and child-friendly “hugs and kisses”. If the essential nature of these signs is to be what other signs are not, then we understand the one red line with the pink heart only because it is precisely not the pink line with the red heart (or the white line with the blue droplet for that matter). Further, we cannot help but associate the heart with warm affect (love) and the blue water drop with cold affect (sadness) just as the colors themselves elicit physiological temperature associations. As the artist states, “Noise implies a gap between intention and reception. The artworks in the show employ both tactics to allow the viewer to immediately know the work’s

XXX (pink/orange) (detail)

intention, and like a good poem, allow time for rumination”. So the “xxx” works equally signify the charged sex shops in Times Square as they do the mundane “open” sign in every mom and pop shop (the countless variations of which Pickleman collects in an obsessive way, and which he often piles in different configurations on the floor). In his 1933 lecture “What is poetry?” theorist Roman Jakobson argued that the difference between poetic language and the language of communication in everyday life is that in a poem a word is felt as a word, not just a mere representation of the object being named. When words become more than the sign referring to an object in reality, they acquire a weight and a value of their own. With a twist, these autonomous words point to the inadequacy of signs. What this lecture zeroed in on and distilled is that “harmony is the result of contrast” and from the world of contradictory opposing elements the poet finds “secret kinship”. This is the essence of the operation Pickelman makes in his work. He states “Both personal and commercial projects involve a sleight of hand, a re-organization of sign, symbol and word to influence response and affect.” Pickleman moves beyond simply making an art object (such as these neon works) into sanctifying his objects through acts of reverence: his works move beyond confusion to reveal alternative boundaries and new possible readings. His work performs an operation that takes us from mere “representing” to the far deeper “emblematizing” that is an almost spiritual imbuing of meaning. Thus the works taken together are quite different than when they are taken as individual works. In one work the single word “ONE“ is spelled in pink letters on top of a yellow line and feels (in affect) drastically different than the work with “DONE“ that reverses the color organization, thus a pink line with yellow text. Where “DONE” feels complete, “ONE” feels whole. It is with both that the sublime also catches a glimpse of the real, which is an otherwise invisible real. Next to each other they immediately bring the saying “ONE & DONE” to mind. Unlike this saying which is really one, these works are two. Another equally playful and equally surprising twist are the two works “MAYBE” and “OK”, which next to each other suggest the phrase “It may be OK”.

Installation view White Line Blue Tear; One & Done, Pluses & Minuses; XXX (pink/orange)

So as to not leave us in between the sublime and the real, the exhibition also includes a series titled “Repurposed Works”. Indeed the works are taken from the forms of commercial signage, but the purpose has been removed and so has the meaning. Pickleman describes them as “left-over materials from commercial design projects that have been re-assembled into intentionally illegible jumbles of letters.” The slippage between meaning and non-meaning is most apparent as we cannot resist trying to untangle the words and make them into something legible. So perhaps here, more than anywhere else in his entire body of work, we see the division between the low art of graphic design and the high art of sculpture for sculpture’s sake. This is a division Pickleman vehemently rejects, saying: “The space between those two things has always been my subject.”

Justin Polera is the director of PS 120. He lives in Berlin.

One & Done 2019 68 x 4.5 x 3.5” each two neon signs edition of 5

Maybe (purple/green) 2019 68 x 9 x 3” neon sign edition of 5 OK (blue/green) 2019 68 x 9 x 3” neon sign edition of 5

Hearts Divided (pink/red) 2019 68 x 7 x 3â&#x20AC;? neon sign edition of 5

Hearts Divided (pink/red) (detail)

Installation views

Installation view Pluses & Minuses 2019 68 x 6 x 3” neon sign edition of 5 XXX (pink/orange) 2018 68 x 4 x 3” neon sign edition of 5 Hearts Divided (pink/red) 2019 68 x 7 x 3” neon sign edition of 5

White Line Blue Tear 2010 68 x 3.5 x 3” neon sign edition of 5 One & Done 2019 68 x 4.5 x 3.5” each two neon signs edition of 5

White Line Blue Tear (detail)

Yes (teal/red) 2019 68 x 4 x 3â&#x20AC;? neon sign edition of 5

Installation view at right White Line Two Blue Tear 2015 68 x 8 x 3.5â&#x20AC;? neon sign edition of 5

Re:Purpose #4 2019 9 x 26 x 3â&#x20AC;? neon sign unique 34

Re:Purpose #3 2019 11 x 23 x 3â&#x20AC;? neon sign unique

White Line Two Blue Tear 2015 68 x 8 x 3.5” neon sign edition of 5 Re:Purpose #3 2019 11 x 23 x 3” neon sign unique

Re:Purpose #4 2019 9 x 26 x 3” neon sign unique Heart (red/pink) 2019 68 x 7 x 3” neon sign edition of 5

Hand (pink/yellow) 2019 68 x 10 x 3â&#x20AC;? neon sign edition of 5

Hand (pink/yellow) (detail)

Re:Purpose #2 2019 10 x 28 x 3.5â&#x20AC;? neon sign unique

HappE 2010 40 x 40 x 4â&#x20AC;? neon sign unique

Jumble (ANKE) 2019 neon sign in front of mirrored acrylic 12 x 12 x 12â&#x20AC;? unique

This Way That Way (green/pink) 2011 22 x 54â&#x20AC;? neon sign edition of 5

Jason Pickleman (b.1965) lives and works in Chicago

Bridging the gap between fine and commercial art, Jason Pickleman has created a body of work both conceptual and popular, applying media as varied as neon, offset printing, silkscreen, collage, photography and commercially available ready-mades. Pickleman’s studio, the JNL graphic design, was begun in 1992 and specializes in the creation of graphic ephemera of unique cultural significance. Exhibition catalogues, art objects, informational propaganda, and cultural paraphernalia for clients such as Blackbird, Avec, Publican, The Wit, The Museum of Contemporary Photography, Millennium Park, Skinny Pop Popcorn, and Harrington College of Design, all bear the imprint of the studio’s unique vision. Pickleman was included in the 2007 exhibition Young Chicago at the Art Institute of Chicago, and his work has subsequently been placed into the museum’s permanent collection. Education 1987 BA, English Literature, Boston University Solo Exhibitions 2019 Light Reading, Ken Saunders Gallery, Chicago, IL 2012 Sometimes Why, Ikram, Chicago, IL 2008 No Better, Devening Projects + Editions, Chicago, IL Group Exhibitions 2018 Local Comfort, LVL3, Chicago, IL 2018 Great Ideas, Chicago Design Museum, Chicago, IL 2015 Wherever, LVL3, Chicago, IL Simplicity, Starcom MediaVest Group, Chicago, IL 2014 CHGO DSGN, Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL 2011 Write Now: Artists and Letterforms, Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL 2010 Neon Wall Sculptures, Alan Koppel Gallery, Chicago, IL Typo, College of DuPage, Glen Ellyn, IL (catalog) 2009 From A Position, Curated by Maxwell Graham, Evanston Art Center, Evanston, IL (catalog) 2007 Young Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, IL (catalog) 2003 Winter Experiment, moniquemeloche, Chicago, IL 1992 Webster University Art Gallery, St. Louis, MO Curatorial Projects 2015– Lawrence & Clark, a collection based gallery, Chicago, IL 2008 Time, Trauma, Drama and Rhyme, Devening Projects + Editions, Chicago, IL 2007 Poetry: Literal, Visual and Otherwise, moniquemeloche, Chicago, IL

Public Art 2007 City of Chicago, CTA Montrose Station Brown Line, Chicago, IL 2016 Hand Eye Hand Heart, mural, 216 W Chicago Teaching 2004-2008 University of Illinois Chicago, School of Architecture, Chicago, IL 2003 Merz Academy, Stuttgart, Germany 2002-2005 Archeworks, Chicago, IL 2000 School of The Art Institute, Chicago, IL 1999 Merz Academy, Stuttgart, Germany Lecture 2011

The Chicago Humanities Festival

Collections The Art Institute of Chicago, IL Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), Chicago, IL The Wit Hotel, Chicago, IL The Renaissance Hotel, Chicago, IL Wright, Chicago, IL

JNL GRAPHIC DESIGN est. 1992 Clients include: Expo Chicago Millennium Park Lurie Garden The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago Poetry Foundation Driehaus Museum One Off Hospitality Chicago Cultural Center Chicago Transit Authority Time Out Chicago Chicago Loop Alliance Helmut Jahn SOFA Chicago Opera Theater Society for Contemporary Art at The Art Institue of Chicago Hyde Park Art Center Arts Club of Chicago Auditorium Theater Chicago Architecture Foundation DePaul University Art Museum Field Museum Museum of Contemporary Photography Columbia College Chicago Nathan Manilow Sculpture Park Lakeview Pantry Smart Museum The Sovereign Nation of the Oneida Harris School of Public Policy Skinny Pop Popcorn jnldesign.com

Jason Pickleman Light Reading Ken Saunders Gallery July 12—August 30 2019 LINE WORKS

RE:PURPOSE WORKS

White Line Blue Tear 2010 68 x 3.5 x 3” neon sign edition of 5

XXX (orange/pink) 2018 68 x 4 x 3” neon sign edition of 5

Re:Purpose #2 2019 10 x 28 x 3.5” neon sign unique

White Line Two Blue Tear 2015 68 x 8 x 3.5” neon sign edition of 5

Pluses & Minuses 2019 68 x 6 x 3” neon sign edition of 5

Re:Purpose #3 2019 11 x 23 x 3” neon sign unique

One & Done 2019 68 x 4.5 x 3.5” each two neon signs edition of 5

Maybe (purple/green) 2019 68 x 9 x 3” neon sign edition of 5

Re:Purpose #4 2019 9 x 26 x 3” neon sign unique

Heart (red/pink) 2019 68 x 7 x 3” neon sign edition of 5

OK (blue/green) 2019 68 x 9 x 3” neon sign edition of 5

ADDITIONAL WORKS

Hearts Divided (pink/red) 2019 68 x 7 x 3” neon sign edition of 5

Yes (teal/red) 2019 68 x 4 x 3” neon sign edition of 5

XXX (pink/orange) 2018 68 x 4 x 3” neon sign edition of 5

Hand (pink/yellow) 2019 68 x 10 x 3” neon sign edition of 5

This Way That Way (green/pink) 2011 22 x 54” neon sign edition of 5 HappE 2010 40 x 40 x 4” neon sign unique Jumble (ANKE) 2019 neon sign in front of mirrored acrylic 12 x 12 x 12” unique

Neon Thoughts by Jason Pickleman

I grew up in the western suburbs of Chicago. Big houses. Big lawns. Nobody on the sidewalks. People drove everywhere. Families kept to themselves. Except my next door neighbors, Joe and Joanne Shannahan, who were exuberant art collectors of, among other things, neon artwork. Installed inside their house, neon oddities bathed their windows with red, green, and an immersive blue that, from the sidewalk, led one’s mind into believing that some decadent party was taking place EVERY night (well, there was a hot tub in the backyard, and well, it was the 70s). Most memorably, Joe commissioned an exterior neon work that was installed on a telephone pole in his backyard—how he got permission from Illinois Bell to do THAT is beyond me! That work was visible from blocks away. Their house became notorious. My friends would say, “Who are the freaks that live next door to you?” As a young person with an artistic bent, I couldn’t think of a brighter example from which to model a vision of myself as an artistic adult. My mother, an interior decorator and artist herself, stoked my neon obsession by buying me a twenty-four-inch-tall pink and red neon flamingo. It’s two legs, one cocked, rising out of a black acrylic box that hid the transformer, was placed onto the wooden seat of a Victorian wheelchair that decorated my bedroom. Finally, my life glowed, just like my neighbors! I was fourteen. Fast forward forty years, and my life is steeped in art, both for myself, and my clients. As a graphic designer, I’m tasked with creating distinctive and memorable logos and developing comprehensive signage systems to promote my client’s businesses. Whenever I can, I use neon. In so doing, I’ve learned the in-and-outs of bending 8mil, 10mil, and 12 mil glass tubes. Attempting to learn the task myself has been daunting—it’s hot, dangerous, and not prone to the arbitrary. Thus, my neon work is bent by others—parallel professionals and craftsman for whom I have the utmost respect. My work as a commercial graphic designer rests on my skill to tie a name to a specifically stylized visual identity. In design, ambiguity is the enemy. Unique individuality is the goal. McDonalds does NOT look like Burger King. The color scheme of Southwest Airlines looks NOTHING like that used by United Airlines. FedEx is purple and orange. UPS is brown.

When I’m designing my own artwork, I use the same design sleights of hand the above examples demonstrate, but I allow the work to suggest a slipperiness of meaning. I attempt to make work that lands somewhere in the space between commercial design and visual poetry. Specific meaning is tempered by possible allusion. I’m not looking for the definitive. My neon works are designed to be distinct AND suggestive. And also very bright. This group of work I am showing at Ken Saunders Gallery is comprised of two bodies of work. “White Line Blue Tear”, “XXX”, “Heart”, “Hearts Divided”, and “Pluses & Minuses” are what I call my “line” work. Using a 68” vertical line (a nod to the vertical work on that telephone pole outside my boyhood window), these works acknowledge the 5-foot tube lengths from which much neon work originates. This vertical line is the structure that allows an iconic sprout—like a leaf off a tree branch, or a flower’s bloom from its stem. The second body of work are re-purposed materials from my commercial design practice. Like a collage artists who cuts up pictures from magazines and layers them in unusual juxtapositions, I’ve taken parts of words from my design projects and composed them upon one another—often turning letters upside down, sometimes backwards, in some cases even painting out the letterforms themselves. In these compositions, language’s mandate that it be READ is thwarted. Letters and words get demoted to line and form. Language falls back into a place before comprehension— back to suggestion. All this intentional “messing up” is accomplished with a designer’s eye for balanced form and color. As renegade as I’d like to be, at heart I’m a rigid formalist. Just a kid from suburban Hinsdale.