088 http://www.AmericanArtCollector.com
O
ngoing now at 101/EXHIBIT in
Los Angeles is Glorious Poison,
Jason Shawn Alexander’s new exhibition,
his fifth at the California gallery. The
show will mark a departure for the artist,
whose works have previously been oil on
canvas. For this exhibition he will make a
significant shift to ink-based paintings on
canvas and paper.
Alexander, who began his professional art
career as a comic book artist and writer, is
widely known for his stylistic expression offigure, mood and also existential dread as
his figures seem to absorb into and out of
the paper or canvas, their life forms in a state
of chaotic flux as his brushstrokes wander
purposefully around the composition.
Works in the show include Seaton,
featuring a male figure reclining into a
cascading strip of gold, with his hands
and face full of detail but his arms and
body rendered simply in black ink. The
Red Queen is more ordered, with a nude
female figure turned away from the viewerbut glancing backward with a raven mask
hanging from her face. Contrasting her
dark skin and Alexander’s inks is a red
shawl loosely hanging from her hands and
drawn in with rusty red linework. Many of
the pieces are done quite large, creating
an almost life-size quality to their bodies
and, most importantly, their facial features
that peer back from the paper.
101/EXHIBIT director Kevin Van Gorp
says Alexander is a sure-footed artist.
“For Glorious Poison, he has a struck aJASON SHAWN ALEXANDERPoisoned paper
101/E XH I B IT
668 N. La Peer Drive | Los Angeles, CA 90069
(310) 259-9668 | http://www.101exhibit.comUPCOMING SHOW PREVIEW / LOS ANGELES, CA
Through December 17, 201611
Jason Shawn
Alexander in his
California studio.2
Seaton, ink, pastel,
polyurethane and
acrylic on paper,
44 x 30"3
The Red Queen, ink
and polyurethane
on paper, 44 x 30"4
Glorious Poison, ink,
coffee and acrylic
on paper, 44 x 30"5
Patron Saint of the
Downtrodden, ink,
acrylic and gold leaf
on paper, 44 x 30"