JULIAN JACKSON
AURA
new paintings
Reception Wednesday October 26 , 2011, 7-9 pm
exhibition through Saturday October 29
PAGE BOND GALLERY
1625 West Main Street Richmond, VA 23220
804.359.3633
http://www.pagebondgallery.com/
Richmond Arts Review
Richmond, Virginia
AURA
"Much like music, color is a language of mood," states Julian Jackson, whose Aura paintings are presently on view at Page Bond Gallery. It is the textural flatness and the way Jackson diffuses oil paint on wood or canvas so that it obtains a vaporous and vibrating quality, which allows color an opportunity to speak its language. Rothko's colorfield paintings come to mind, though where Rothko's paint is sucked in by the canvas in an emotional recoil, Jackson's surfaces nudge the color forward.
In House from the River (2011) oil paint has been applied in Jackson's signature fashion, to a smoothed wood panel which hovers slightly away from the wall. There is a glimpse of the play of sunlight through wind-shifting trees, reflected sky and window glass, but only because he directed us with the title. Without a narrative focus the painting is another in a series of unfixed explorations of aura, and color, as vibrating energy and light that can be sensed as much as seen.
Aura 3 - Stillness (2011, 82 x 72 in) undermines the intellectual concept of "stillness" to arrive at a more complex understanding that the eye, which is always moving and breathing light cannot fathom stillness at all. Gradations of white and grey allow subtle flashes of blue; blue speaks calmness or tranquility, white of simplicity. But such interpretations only grasp at an emotional ephemera. These paintings change every time you look at them.
- Amy Ritchie
Julian Jackson's Aura is on view at Page Bond Gallery through October 29.
Image: Aura Midnight oil on canvas, 82 x 72 inches
Aura is often defined in near mystical terms as the halo or penumbra of colored light surrounding an individual in a field of radiant energy. The colors of the aura are imagined to correspond to the individuals' personal Chi, or life force. The works in this exhibition are from an ongoing series of paintings and works on paper in which I am exploring phenomena of light, color, and atmosphere in order to map the sense of a day, season, person, or place, as well as to explore the inner architecture of my own sensibility.
On a color wheel the visible spectrum is rendered as 7 key colors; Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, and Violet. Each of these has its' own specific energy, intensity, and web of associations. But we all know that between these cardinal points there lie infinite gradations of hue and shade. In my work I am very interested in these delicacies of nuance. Much like music, color is a language of mood. These works from the Aura Series are like pages from my journal helping me to find form, experiment with subtleties of color, and to further my understanding of the pulse and temperature of passing time.
Julian Jackson 2011
