Reception: September 7th | 5pm–7pm

Rena Bransten Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition of new work from celebrated artist Oliver Lee Jackson. This exhibition is organized in conjunction with his current solo exhibition at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, which opened in April of this year and runs through mid-September.

Jackson’s works draw the viewer into extended contemplation. His compositions present complex worlds in which field and imagery interweave, creating visual effects that may range from lyrical to ferocious. The paintings offer a realm of materials, imagery, and effects (illumination, space, mass, etc.), but Jackson is clear that they tell no "story." While we may be inclined to seek a narrative or specific reading, Jackson’s language is based in the ambivalent and personal nature of visual experience.

In an extraordinarily prolific career now spanning over five decades, Jackson has produced a staggering body of work including paintings, sculptures, drawings, and prints. The large-scale paintings selected for this exhibition — some in diptychs and triptychs — represent recent works which continue Jackson’s exploration of the nature of experience with extraordinary force and sensitivity. While he has long been known as a masterful colorist, this exhibition includes a new Triptych measuring 8 by 18 feet that is essentially a composition in grisaille.

“[Jackson’s] subdued practice shows an intense interest not in being a ‘style’ but rather in revealing philosophical and phenomenological moments.”
-Chris Cobb (SFMOMA Open Space)

Oliver Lee Jackson’s work has been exhibited extensively over the past several decades. His artworks are in the permanent collections of The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Blanton Museum, Austin; Contemporary Art Museum, Chicago; Yale University Art Gallery; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive; The Oakland Museum; San Jose Museum of Art, and many other public and private collections across the U.S. He lives and works in Oakland, CA.