Jared Brook: Sacrifice and Revelations
@ FLXST Contemporary
2251 S Michigan Ave, Suite 220, Chicago, IL 60616
Opening Friday, January 20th, from 5PM - 8PM
On view through Monday, February 20th
Continuing his explorations queer figurative abstraction, the painter Jared Brook pays close attention to the affective contours of queer intimacy and pathos through perspectival techniques and proximity to the spaces that the figures occupy on his panels. As viewers, we share the artist’s space in the fourth wall of his paintings, bringing us inside the intimate spaces that the artist shares with his subjects. The paintings in Jared Brook’s Sacrifice and Revelations—his debut solo show for FLXST—depict the transgression of a conservative religious upbringing. This oppressive context denied the artist’s sexuality—his complete authentic existence. The figures in his paintings challenge us to extricate them from the dense impasto gestural marks on the panels. This labor of looking is not accidental. For queer folks, we are trained to look and read the gazes of others. Early on, we understand that the queer gaze comes at a cost, especially in a social and cultural context that disavows queer desire. The artist’s painterly gestures speak to the anxieties of the queer gaze.
The transgression of his past allows the artist to embrace his queer desires and paint the figures on his panels with earnest desire and cautious optimism.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Jared Brook is an abstract painter and queer artist living and working in Chicago. Born and raised in Central Europe, Brook grew up in a highly religious and oppressive community with extremist ideas about sex and the body. At age 13, he was brought to the United States to be raised like his American relatives, where he struggled to confront his past. Brook studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, pursuing his passion for abstract painting and figure drawing. Struggles with self-identity, sexuality, religion, and abuse continue to find their way into his work.
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Tags: Chicago, FLXST Contemporary, Jared Brook, Near South Side, Sacrifice and Revelations
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