Jake Longstreth
Lake Chambers 48" x 48" acrylic on panel 2006
The work of Jake Longstreth reminds me of the less glamourous parts of tourist America; the feeling you get when you walk down the wrong road in Vegas and end up by the air conditioning units of a colossal hotel, or the ill considered decoration of a huge wall that protects the bathers at the hotel from the freeway.
I love the depiction, of what people tend to do when building, they strip out nature, build their safe enclosure, and then recreate their idea of nature in a clinical manner so there is no danger of anything being out of place.
The way in which he uses light is also spot on to my experience, the midday sun that offers no casting shadows to depict the form of these spaces built out of nowhere with their bleached white dazzling walls.
Architecture, Art
Reader Comments (1)
Longstreth is to the exurban landscape what Warhol is to the Campbell's soupcan and Ruscha is to the Chevron station. However, he works with our modern landscape rather than an object and makes a beautiful painting out of it.
His work resonates on many levels. On the surface it is photo realistic, but it also works on as an abstract painting. His painting "Kensett" for example (http://www.jakelongstreth.com/paintings5b.html) not only shows the back of a anonymous steak house, but also works as a beautiful abstract painting with the beautiful shapes and colors of the parking lot and sky intersecting. I think Longstreth might be the most important California artist emrging in the first decade of this century. He is at least one to watch.