Jivan Lee
New Mexico: New Landscape Paintings
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Jivan Lee New Mexico: New Landscape Paintings
LewAllenGalleries Railyard Arts District | 1613 Paseo de Peralta | Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 | tel 505.988.3250 www.lewallengalleries.com | info@lewallengalleries.com cover: Remnants of a Hurricane, 2015, Oil on canvas, 40 x 40 in
Jivan Lee New Mexico: New Landscape Paintings “[T]he moment I saw the brilliant, proud morning shine up over the deserts of Santa Fe, something stood still in my soul.…There was a certain magnificence in the high-up day, a certain eagle-like royalty.…In the magnificent fierce morning of New Mexico one sprang awake, a new part of the soul woke up suddenly.…” D.H. Lawrence, “New Mexico” (1928)
Gazed at long enough, the amalgamation of color, forms and shapes in nature inspire the senses—indeed,
they awaken the soul as Lawrence so poetically observed—and they can have a profoundly transformative effect. Perhaps it is a primal connection with the land, a kind of elegiac cellular memory, that inspires the senses of awe and longing that nearly always accompany looking at a sunset, gazing across a fruited plain, contemplating a rushing stream or quiet pond, beholding jagged ridges of soaring mountains, or peering into the beckoning mysteries of verdant woods. From these things America the Beautiful is made—and the gift of awe is conferred. It is here, in this anatomy of nature, that Henry David Thoreau, philosopher and poet, observed the possibility to “live deep and suck out all the marrow of life.” Jivan Lee’s remarkable oil paintings on canvas resonate this exhilaration for living fully and for exalting in the midst of the land’s extraordinary beauty. At age 31, with a mind as sharp as the crisp air of the brilliant New Mexico mornings he routinely heads out to paint in, Lee creates extraordinary scenes of the Land of Enchantment, rendered in thick paint and lush color applied with tools of executant power: spatulas, bare hands and broad brushes. Primarily a plein-air painter, Lee journeys into the New Mexico countryside and comes out with heavily impastoed tableaus of its landscape that look as though they have been ripped with raw spontaneity from the vistas he sits before to paint each day. Leavened only by a disciplined consistency of artistic vision, Lee’s remarkable oil paintings reflect his delight in the midst of this land’s beauty. Lee’s surfaces are composed with copious amounts of weighty oil paint laid out in patterns of gracefully arching trails and muscular geometric forms, producing luminous reverberations rather than literal depictions of the land’s majesty. In their opulent textures, his surfaces assume the felt sensations of earth, rock, water and sky. The lustrous lighting effects he captures arise from the convergence of Lee’s keen eye, technical ability and resolute insistence on being present in the locations he chooses to paint. These effects ignite from
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the short times in which the sun is positioned to illuminate the land in particular ways that captivate his imagination, and often require the artist to work at a swift fervent pace and to return to the same spot at the same time, day after day. From Lee’s vibrant orchestrations it is evident the paintings are created at the hand of an artist who revels in his experience of the unique New Mexico landscape. These are not ordinary pictures of mountains and mesas, but lively visual moments of exaltation. It is as though nature’s radiance has merged with the artist’s very being. His paintings are visual encomiums to the land and lush pastiches of its ineffable mysteries Lee is a master of the grand view as well as more intimate detail. His paintings are reverent responses to the amazement he feels in looking at distant backs of creviced mountains whose colors change with the sun’s daily migration. He applies paint in sensuous visceral embrace of undulating hills and the chamisas and piñons that grace their sides. Trained as a biologist and with an advanced degree in environmental policy, Lee makes art that comes naturally as a kind of love affair with the land. Anchored in his profoundly deep respect for the natural environment, his paintings are what he calls “totems” of this intense experience. Frequently he sings as he paints—what he calls “serenading the painting and the place.”
Edible Color Color is a critical aspect of Lee’s process. He says he loves color so much that “sometimes I want to eat it. Good color is foundational to everything else.” As an outdoor painter, he observes closely the colors of rocks, sky, bushes, trees, reflections in streams, and earth arrayed before him in locations he engages. He mixes colors (rarely using any hue directly from a tube of oil paint), trying and refining various iterations with an eye and heart open to discovery, until an amazed silence comes over him, inspired by the intuition that the color has literally become a part of himself, what he calls “second nature.” About this, Lee says: “I need the color to be in my bones to paint well. I want my muscles and cells to remember it. So I’m always looking at colors and how they change in different contexts. When I’m driving in the land I’m mixing color in my head. I can mix better on location, when time is short and inspiration is plenty.” Lee recognizes the value of chance and the unexpected, and the power of color to inject vitality of sentiment and dynamism into his work and reveal his creative authenticity. For Lee, surprise intensifies the joy he feels from the land’s beauty which in turn he aims to share in his paintings. He says, “Unexpected colors and marks that arise while painting are in my opinion often the most important to a piece. I’m not sure where they originate but they are frequently fresh, lively, risky and fun; they’re where I’m aspiring further and I often find that a painting will follow their lead to a bolder, more lively result.”
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The Necessity of Being Present So important is this sense of immediacy in his process that Lee insists on painting mainly outdoors whenever possible. His intention is to imbue his paintings with the spirit and the physicality of the land he celebrates: when dust blows onto his canvas, for example, he leaves it mixed with the paint. About this he says, “I like that a literal part of the place I’m painting remains in the piece; it feels like a sort of homage to the special fortune of a given day in a given place.” Lee uses speed and a sense of urgency, coming in part from the need to capture light, in order to allow spontaneity and intuition to enter into his process. These enable an artist’s “faster-than-thought” instincts and skills (in the parlance of Alex Katz) to fuel the flames of creativity. Combined with a well-trained regard for the importance of more meditative post-location refinement in the studio, Lee’s practice engenders a vibrant sense of energy in his work, what Monet called the “instantaneity” of image on canvas. Key to Lee’s artistry is his devotion to the totality of a painting, as faithful testament of the feelings a place elicits. He says of this: “I do value equality in my treatment and ‘seeing’ of a place. It’s about what a place elicits: sometimes it is equally active movement and gesture bringing bold rhythm into a work—say with a storm. Other times it is about stillness and an equalizing, leveling approach to emphasize the emanating peace—say with a sunset or a foggy day. To say one part of a place is more important than another would be naïve of me. As such I don’t want any part of a painting to be less important than another. The final painting then, as the collection of my responses to a location, will hopefully be dynamic in its outcome.”
Wild Roaming Aesthetically, Lee is a bit of a wild child. The hallmark of his work is spontaneity and intuition melded with extraordinary technical proficiency and disciplined preparation that might include sketches, idea boards and even writings. He takes the material of painting and, like a visual alchemist, conjures rapturous connections between what appears on his canvas and what arises in the heart. Of this he says: “I value the wild in art. Much of my ambition is to sustain a practice and produce work that is wild: untrammeled, insulated from too much definition and circumscription, with plenty of space to roam about in the realms of intuition, creative inspiration and mystery— FREE! I want the creative process to lead, and everything else to support its unfolding, because I believe there is wisdom and insight inherent in it.” Lee says that for him uncertainty precedes genuine discovery and requires faith in the integrity of this creative process. This ethos guides much of Lee’s practice and allows him to regard risk as an elixir: “Courting uncertainty is essential. I paint out of love for and appreciation of beauty, and in search of wisdom. The process is emergent
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and unpredictable.” He clarifies that he must have “a receptive attitude, respecting something enough to pause and dedicate time to being with it. I have to choose to follow inspiration.” For both artist and viewer the result is often elated discovery, of having found a long-sought-after but mysterious connection to the world that in its encounter unlocks a joyful sense of deep well-being. When Lee takes risks with humility and an open heart he says what is clear is that: “I get to just be thrilled to be somewhere sharing a remarkable, beautiful moment. I get to be grateful to the land because it draws me out beyond my previously more limited perspective. I’m given a chance to marvel, to remember things that really matter.”
At the Intersection of Abstraction and the Familiar As the affective potential of his work has become increasingly important to Lee—what he calls his desire to create “vessels to inspire feeling and emotion”—it is perhaps not surprising that he has increasingly recognized the potential of the sheer materiality of paint and canvas to contribute to the evocative power within his visual vocabulary. He has allowed a degree of abstraction to enter his work, loosening lines and scumbling areas of paint in order to distill various forms into more reductive shapes, emphasizing the essential and allowing blocks of color to carry greater expressive content. Although these aspects of the non-objective have not diminished the recognizable quality of Lee’s landscapes, they have enriched within his painting the alluring feelings of mystery and the supernal implicit in the landscape itself.
Reflections of the Land and the Artist To look closely at a Lee painting is not only an opportunity to share in his creative and joyful celebration of the beauty of landscape but also to peer into the soul of the artist. He is a person of unusual intelligence, education, curiosity, enthusiasm and social consciousness. These traits manifest in his artistic practice and, just as he endeavored to do with his environmental work before becoming a full-time painter, he aspires for his paintings to contribute to a better world. He is especially mindful of art’s potential to improve the lives of others: “I want to reach people in a manner that improves their lives, deepens appreciation and awareness of beauty, and stretches notions of where beauty can be found. I hope the resulting works are generative forces that contribute joy, awe and good to the lives of others—works that still the mind’s worries, enrich a day and inspire deeper relating with this world.” – Kenneth R. Marvel 4
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At the Foot of the Pedernal, 2016, Oil on panel, 48 x 118 in
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Lone Pine at Two Trail #1 - Early Morning, 2016, Oil on panel, 36 x 24 in
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Algodones #1 - San Jose Mission, 2015, Oil on panel, 30 x 30 in
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Downpour Over Tesuque, 2015, Oil on canvas, 36 x 24 in
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El Prado #2 - Sunrise Over Taos Mountain, 2015, Oil on canvas, 40 x 60 in
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Before Sunset, 2016, Oil on panel, 20 x 16 in
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After Sunset, 2016, Oil on panel, 20 x 16 in
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Mountainside #1, 2016, Oil on panel, 12 x 12 in
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Lone Pine Study #1, 2016, Oil on panel, 12 x 12 in
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Rio Grande #3- Morning Light, 2016, Oil on panel, 48 x 120 in
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Rio Grande #1, 2015, Oil on canvas, 60 x 40 in
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Church of the Sacred Heart, 2014, Oil on canvas, 48 x 60 in
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At the End of a Big Storm, 2016, Oil on panel, 30 x 84 in
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Snow Squall, 2016, Oil on panel, 18 x 60 in
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Fruit Stand in Winter, 2016, Oil on canvas, 24 x 48 in
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Taos Mountain - Late Day Light, 2016, Oil on panel, 18 x 24 in
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Sunset Rhythms #2, 2016, Oil on panel, 12 x 24 in
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Sunset Rhythms #3, 2016, Oil on panel, 12 x 9 in
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Morning Storm, 2015, Oil on canvas, 30 x 54 in
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First Light on Fajada Butte, 2015, Oil on canvas, 30 x 54 in
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In the Snow #1, 2016, Oil on panel, 12 x 12 in
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In the Snow #2, 2016, Oil on panel, 12 x 12 in
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Sunrise South of Lamy, 2016, Oil on canvas, 24 x 70 in
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Catching the Last Light, 2016, Oil on canvas, 48 x 48 in
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Morning Abstract, 2013, Oil on linen, 20 x 16 in
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Sunset Abstract, 2013, Oil on linen, 20 x 16 in
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Taos Mountain Exhale with Last Light, 2013, Oil on panel, 30 x 36 in
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Mountainside #2, 2016, Oil on panel, 12 x 24 in
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Rain Composition #2, 2015, Oil on canvas, 13 x 8 in
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Rain Composition #3 2015, Oil on canvas, 30 x 30 in
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Sunrise Ridge Study, 2015, Oil on canvas, 8 x 13 in
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Sunset Rhythms, 2015, Oil on panel, 12 x 16 in
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Jivan Lee EDUCATION
Bard College, BA Bard Center for Environmental Policy, MS
2011
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2016 2015 2014 2013 2011
LewAllen Galleries, Santa Fe, NM Harwood Art Center, Albuquerque, NM Heinley Fine Arts, Taos, NM Heinley Fine Arts, Taos, N Wailliam Havu Gallery, Denver, CO Milagro Gallery, Taos, NM
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012
Out West Art Show, Great Falls, MT Coors Art Exhibit, Denver, CO Heinley Fine Arts, Taos, NM Great American Landscapes, Flinn Gallery, Greenwich, CT Wandering the West, Altamira Fine Art, Jackson, WY Earth, Water, and Sky, William Havu Gallery, Denver, CO Desert Mythos, Altamira Fine Art, Scottsdale, AZ Summer Gala Exhibition, Taos Art Museum, Taos, NM Jivan Lee & Peter Campell, Meyer East Gallery, Santa Fe, NM MasterWorks of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM Heinley Fine Arts, Taos, NM “Under the Hill,” E.L. Blumenschein Museum, Taos, NM MasterWorks of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM “PAPNM Members Exhibition,” Millicent Rogers Museum, Taos, NM 17th Annual National Juried Exhibition, Abend Gallery & Plein Air Artists of Colorado, Denver Plein Air Santa Fe, Gary Kim Fine Art & Plein Air Santa Fe, Santa Fe, NM ¡Encantada! 2013, Albuquerque, NM Common Ground 2013, City of Santa Fe Arts Commission Community Gallery, Santa Fe, NM Taos Contemporary, Center for Visual Art at Metropolitan State University of Denver, Denver, CO 16th National Juried Exhibition, Wilder Nightingale Fine Art & Plein Air Artists of Colorado, Taos, NM
Common Ground 2012, City of Santa Fe Arts Commission Community Gallery, Santa Fe, NM A Russian Night in Taos, Taos Art Museum and Fechin House, Taos, NM Taos Select, Taos Fall Arts Festival, Taos, NM 10th Annual Miniatures Exhibition, Millicent Rogers Museum, Taos, NM ¡Encantada! 2012, Albuquerque, NM Young Artists of Taos, Taos Center for the Arts, Taos, NM 3rd Annual Taos Self Portraits, Taos Center for the Arts, Taos, NM Land and Light, Millicent Rogers Museum, Taos, NM Taos Select, Taos Fall Arts Festival, Taos, NM A Russian Night in Taos, Taos Art Museum and Fechin House, Taos, NM The NOW WOW Project, Hudson Gallery, Sylvania, OH
SELECTED HONORS & AWARDS 2016 2015 2014
“Three to Watch” artist, Fine Art Connoisseur Cover Artwork—February 2015, Southwest Art Solo exhibition award, 2015 Solo series, Harwood Art Center
In the Snow #3, 2016, Oil on panel, 16 x 20 in 39
Railyard Arts District | 1613 Paseo de Peralta | Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 | tel 505.988.3250 www.lewallengalleries.com | info@lewallengalleries.com Š 2016 LewAllen Contemporary LLC Artwork Š JIvan Lee