I have been wanting to show in Asia for a long time
Jonathan Gardner(b. 1982, Lexington, KY) is a New-York based artist known for his depictions of stylish figures and their leisurely worlds. An artist in demand and on the rise, Gardner’s richly colored paintings are filled with nonchalant figures against flattened space, adding to the surreal, uncanny air of the works.
The exhibition ‘Jonathan Gardner: Horizon’ is currently on view at Jason Haam, Seoul, through June 15, 2021. The title of the show, Horizon, references the division of space in Gardner’s works, which—according to the artist—creates ‘a theatrical, stage-like space in which his figures occupy’. Featuring 5 new paintings, this is the artist’s first solo show in Asia-and on this occasion, Gardner shares his thoughts about the exhibition, his practice, and the future.
Q. How did an exhibition with Jason Haam come about? What made you decide to show your works so far away from home and how does it feel to be introduced to a new audience in Korea? Are you excited?
A. Jason originally made contact with me through my gallery in the U.S. in 2019. He was interested in my showing my work, and I was excited to have the opportunity to show with someone who was starting a new program and who was already very familiar with the art world. I have been wanting to show in Asia for a long time, it is exciting to me to have work seen by a new audience which will bring a different point a view in its approach to art than America.
Q. Has COVID-19 affected your production? If so, how?
A. It has affected my production. At the beginning of the pandemic, like most people I stayed home and didn’t even go to the studio. During that time, I created a lot of sketches at home and began to do more finished drawings as well. As time went on, I started to go back to my studio and work on paintings, but I began to realize that my ideas are often inspired by actual experience, to a much a greater degree than I had realized. The fatigue of the pandemic set in and I have greatly missed seeing people and doing normal things. Here in New York however things are slowly returning to normal.
Q. You are currently regarded as one of the most ‘in-demand’ artists in the world. How does it feel to be so acknowledged relatively early in your career? Can you say that the fame has not affected the way you work?
A. I feel very lucky that there are people who like what I do and get to paint without dividing my time between jobs anymore. I honestly don’t think that I am famous, and I have not changed the way I work at all, which can frustrate the galleries I show with, since I am slow! I don’t believe most artist have much choice in the way they work, your technique finds you, and you eventually learn how your work wants to be done. Then you experiment and to try to push your own boundaries.
Q. You previously said your paintings draw on intuition and subconsciousness which come from real life experiences, romance, and bodily impulse. In contrast, your paintings are always carefully designed from their beginning. Do you ever feel like you want to make an impulsive work that you have no idea how the final image is going to look like when you start? How do you see your works develop in the future? Can it be radically different from what you are doing right now?
A. I have occasionally made a work in the past few years that I improvised on the canvas without a preliminary drawing out of curiosity, but you probably wouldn’t be able to know that from the final result.
In art school I spent a lot of time trying to paint this way, and to make more expressionistic, painterly work. I eventually found that I made my strongest work when I embraced my natural tendencies, which are to make paintings in the more methodical and restrained way that I do. It took a while to arrive at that because I am influenced by a lot of different types of painting and because in art school you are often told that tight is bad and painterly is good.
Q. I find it particularly interesting that you paint nudity, but the works are never sexually charged. Why do you think that is?
A. I believe some paintings are sexually charged, but maybe in a way that is intimate, staying within the characters, and not necessarily with an invitation to the viewer to consume the image, but more about the contemplation of a very human experience. I like that nudity is a primal, elemental state for the body.
Q. Your wife is also an artist. Do you guys often influence each other’s works? If so, how?
A. Nora and I have very different interest in painting, but I feel that help us to support each other through our creative process. We often visit each other in the studios sharing feedback. Nora has helped me to work out problems in my paintings with the color or other formal decisions, and she helps me a lot with titles.
I think she may have started to use more invention from her subconscious in her work from seeing me draw and I see that coming into her work.
Q. Finally, what is your aspiration as an artist? Where do you see yourself in 5 years? What would you like to achieve?
A. I hope I can make better paintings than I am now, and that I can push the work forward in some way that will surprise myself. I’m sure if can do that everything else will be fine.