d-CON Mary
(detail) 2008
d-CON packaging, fiberglass
61 1/2" x 24" x 18"
Poison Christ 2008
Rat poison, foam, wood
74" x 63" x 12 1/4"
Girl with Octopus 2007-2008
Gold leaf, acrylic on canvas
40" x 46"
Fur Skull 2002
Rabbit fur, plaster
6 1/4" x 6 3/4" x 9 1/2"
Barbed Wire Flower 2007
Barbed wire, concrete
18 3/4" x 7" x 5 1/2"
Fur Buddha 2002
Rabbit fur, plaster
18" x 16" x 10 3/4"
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Biological
Drawings 2003
Charcoal on paper
Drawing size: 2 1/4" x 2 1/4"
Paper size: 11 3/4" x 9"
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Pinups (Detail: 2 of 13)
2002
45-Long Colt Bullets, epoxy, wax
1 5/8" x 7/16"
Jason clay lewis
drop dead gorgeous
October 9 - November 9, 2008
31GRAND is pleased to present Jason Clay Lewis's
Drop Dead Gorgeous. Empathy/apathy,
desire/revulsion, poison/panacea, death/life,
religion/blasphemy: Drop Dead Gorgeous distills
these binaries into Poison/Religion, pushing the
boundaries between them. Which is good? Which is
bad? Are these judgments even possible?
The poison pieces reference Empathy: as we go up the
food chain, our empathy increases until we reach the
ultimate form represented by the Crucifixion.
Lewis's fascination with religious topoi--seen
throughout his work--this time focuses on semiotic
ambivalence of Christian iconography. "d-CON Mary,"
a recognizable form covered in rat poison packaging
and prominently displayed bar codes, questions not
only the innocuousness of religion but also the
commercialization of religious iconography.
The motif of the skull has reoccurred throughout
Lewis's work, appearing in works ranging from the
contemplative Ikebana sculptures, to the death's
head pin-up girl paintings, to the horrors of war as
seen in the Torture Panel paintings. Hyperfeminized
and seductively posed pinups are topped by bare
skulls--a disjunction that causes an abrupt
cessation of panting adolescent desire. However,
despite its aura of death and horror, the skull also
recalls and reaffirms life: if Death were one of
these golden haired seductresses, who would be
afraid?
Jason Clay Lewis came to New York in 1991 on a
scholarship and internship at Universal Limited Art
Editions. From 1992 - 1994 he worked with Jasper
Johns as his personal studio assistant. Continuing
his education, he graduated from The Cooper Union
with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1997. Jason has been
actively showing for the last several years both
nationally and internationally. His work has
appeared and reviewed in publications including Art
In America, World of Art, Art On Paper and The Los
Angeles Times.
"As an artist, my approach has always been,
intentionally, to confound and challenge
attempts to make things fit into what we already
know and think. I strive to question
perceived beauty, passion, life, death, and
creation. I have an urgent conviction that
art is a passionate and essential affair, a matter
of life and death, where one senses
the only response to death is art. Without glossing
over the violence of the natural
world I ask questions about man's suicidal folly,
the one we call progress, a merger into a religion
of commerce and profit, of false facades, and using
a strategy to make us reconsider our world of visual
imagery. I tinker with these visual explanations,
trying to give them purpose, direction, and meaning.
Always perfectly aware that knowing this constant
probing does not have a sequence to a perfect
solution. Atypical and fascinating, as an adventurer
blending expression, analysis, and experience, I use
every means and media available to explore the love
of knowledge and depict limits, while trying to push
those limits even farther. My interest in unique
materials helps to develop my ideas of attraction
verses repulsion allowing my work to have both a
strong visceral feeling while maintaining a direct
cerebral presence."
Jason currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New
York.
for more info
visit
www.jasonclaylewis.com
