Xylor Jane crisscross

Almine rech Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition by Massachusetts based painter Xylor Jane.  Mathematics and the grid are at use by Ms. Jane to mark the passage of time in bold color and complicated rhythms. An overt investment in pattern drives the artist's paintings to a place where they fall from comprehension, and return to a visual tapestry of the absurd and sublime. Any notion that the idea creates the art is put to rest by the sheer madness of the machine.  Unlike process artists like Sol Lewitt, the recipes at play in Ms Jane's work are for one cook only. The paintings remind one of the infinite project of Roman Opalka and the date works of On Kawara.  The gridded paintings of Agnes Martin's softly patterned and colorfully hazy abstract vistas are also an apt comparison.  The personal musings of the artist translate into veils of refined color stemming from a slightly manic preoccupation with measurement, symbolism and notation. For the viewer, wobbly and atmospheric patterns are both disconcerting and reassuring to gaze upon, because we are also part of Xylor Jane's vast vision of the world.

Luke Murphy on the paintings of Xylor Jane :
« In the current vernacular, one might call Xylor Jane’s work a mash-up of Alfred Jensen’s exploration of ancient numbers  and patterns and the calendar systems mapped by Agnes Martin’s exquisite line and almost intolerable sensitivity. But we would need to add to that confluence the particular type of rigor Jane applies to her work in which her painting structures are predetermined by complex counting instructions the artist imposes upon herself.  Every color, line, and dot is in place because of deliberate execution of those rules.  And even while rigor may describe the manifest structure of these paintings, it does not fully encompass the way or why these painting are formed. They are neither exclusive explorations of mathematics and time systems nor are they only personal and hermetic figuration.

These paintings have sources in that they are made up from series of significant cultural and personal dates in Jane’s lifetime and they reflect the painter’s fascination with accounts of near death experiences: the fast flash of the past, the soft glowing light, the altering effect and the intimacy of the moment. These things are woven in to her system of numbers, texture, color and pattern, a system that has as much to do with a structure of numbers as it has to do with sustaining the self of the artist. This is not hyperbole. For Xylor Jane, numbers are more than just substrates from which she conjures gentle or strident patterns, they are her collaborators and vital effluence.  How else could works of apparent mathematical origin evoke such things as humor and vulnerability or obsession and love?

Most of us looking at these paintings cannot hold the layering of prime number sequences, numerical palindromes and strict rules of coloration in our minds all at once. What we do see however, is the absolute and uncanny necessity of those systems to both the work and to Jane. This is what gives them their internal coherence. What we get from these paintings and what so holds our attention is the deep sense of reassurance that comes from that coherence. »

"Crisscross" is a group of recent oil paintings from the Via Crucis series I began Spring 2009. The series is based on the 14 Stations of the Cross.  Numbers 2, 5, 11 and 13 deal with The Cross specifically: bearing the cross; cruxifiction, and being deposed from it.

In 2002, I saw Barnett Newman's Stations of the Cross paintings at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and decided to pursue my own.  These four paintings are the latest to come out of my studio. They complete the series of 14. » - Xylor Jane

Contact presse: Isaline Vuille +33 1 45 83 71 90 / isaline@alminerech.com

La galerie Almine Rech est heureuse de présenter une exposition de Xylor Jane, une artiste basée dans le Massachusetts. Mme Jane emploie les mathématiques et la grille pour marquer le passage du temps par des couleurs vives et des rythmes complexes. L’utilisation explicite de motifs amène les œuvres de l’artiste à se soustraire à la compréhension pour former une tapisserie visuelle de l’absurde et du sublime. Toute notion selon laquelle l’idée crée l’art est anéantie par la pure folie de la machine. Contrairement aux « process artists » tels que Sol LeWitt, les recettes à l’œuvre dans le travail de Mme Jane ne sont destinées qu’à une seule cuisinière. Les tableaux rappellent le projet infini de Roman Opalka et les dates peintes de On Kawara. L’on pourrait également les comparer aux grilles d’Agnes Martin, avec leurs motifs feutrés et leurs couleurs voilées et abstraites. Les réflexions personnelles de l’artiste se traduisent par des voiles de couleur subtile émanant d’une préoccupation quelque peu maniaque pour les mesures, le symbolisme et la notation. Contempler des motifs instables et atmosphériques est à la fois déconcertant et rassurant pour le spectateur, parce que nous faisons également partie de la vaste vision du monde de Xylor Jane. 

« Dans le jargon d’aujourd’hui, l’on pourrait désigner l’œuvre de Xylor Jane comme un mélange des recherches d’Alfred Jensen sur les nombres et motifs anciens, et des systèmes calendaires tracés par la ligne exquise et la sensibilité presque insupportable d’Agnes Martin. Mais il faudrait ajouter à cette confluence la rigueur particulière que Jane applique à ses peintures, dont les structures sont prédéterminées par le processus complexe de calcul que l’artiste s’impose. Chaque couleur, ligne et point est à sa place en raison de l’exécution délibérée de ces règles. Et même si la rigueur peut suffire à décrire la structure manifeste de ces œuvres, elle ne peut expliquer comment et pourquoi celles-ci sont créées. Il ne s’agit ni d’explorations exclusives des mathématiques et des systèmes temporels, ni uniquement de figuration personnelle et hermétique. Ces peintures ont des sources en ce sens qu’elles sont réalisées à partir de séries de dates culturelles et personnelles significatives dans la vie de Jane, et qu’elles reflètent la fascination de l’artiste pour des récits d’expériences de mort imminente : les images du passé qui défilent, la lumière qui rayonne doucement, la sensation de changement et l’intimité du moment. Ces éléments sont intégrés dans son système de nombres, de textures, de couleurs et de motifs, un système qui a autant à voir avec une structure numérique qu’avec la préservation du soi de l’artiste. Ceci n’est nullement une hyperbole. Pour Xylor Jane, les nombres sont plus que des substrats desquels elle tire des motifs doux ou stridents ; ce sont ses collaborateurs, et une effluence vitale. Sinon, comment des œuvres d’origine apparemment mathématique pourraient-elles évoquer des choses telles que l’humour et la vulnérabilité, ou l’obsession et l’amour ? 
Lorsque l’on regarde ces peintures, on est le plus souvent incapable de saisir simultanément la superposition des séquences de nombres premiers, des palindromes numériques et des règles strictes de coloration. Ce que l’on peut percevoir, par contre, c’est la nécessité absolue et troublante de ces systèmes autant pour son travail que pour Jane elle-même. C’est ce qui leur donne leur cohérence interne. Ce que l’on retire de ces œuvres et ce qui retient tellement notre attention est le sentiment profond de réconfort qui émane de cette cohérence. » 
-  Luke Murphy

« Crisscross  est un ensemble de peintures à l’huile récentes de la série Via Crucis que j’ai commencée au printemps 2009. La série est basée sur les 14 stations du chemin de Croix. Les numéros 2, 5, 11 et 13 traitent spécifiquement de la Croix : le portement de Croix, la crucifixion, et la déposition de Croix. 
En 2002 j’ai vu les tableaux de Barnett Newman sur les stations du chemin de Croix au Philadelphia Museum of Art, et j’ai décidé de créer ma propre série. Ces quatre peintures sont les dernières que j’ai réalisées. Elles complètent la série de 14 tableaux. 
-  Xylor Jane 

Almine rech Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition by Massachusetts based painter Xylor Jane.  Mathematics and the grid are at use by Ms. Jane to mark the passage of time in bold color and complicated rhythms. An overt investment in pattern drives the artist's paintings to a place where they fall from comprehension, and return to a visual tapestry of the absurd and sublime. Any notion that the idea creates the art is put to rest by the sheer madness of the machine.  Unlike process artists like Sol Lewitt, the recipes at play in Ms Jane's work are for one cook only. The paintings remind one of the infinite project of Roman Opalka and the date works of On Kawara.  The gridded paintings of Agnes Martin's softly patterned and colorfully hazy abstract vistas are also an apt comparison.  The personal musings of the artist translate into veils of refined color stemming from a slightly manic preoccupation with measurement, symbolism and notation. For the viewer, wobbly and atmospheric patterns are both disconcerting and reassuring to gaze upon, because we are also part of Xylor Jane's vast vision of the world.

Luke Murphy on the paintings of Xylor Jane :
« In the current vernacular, one might call Xylor Jane’s work a mash-up of Alfred Jensen’s exploration of ancient numbers  and patterns and the calendar systems mapped by Agnes Martin’s exquisite line and almost intolerable sensitivity. But we would need to add to that confluence the particular type of rigor Jane applies to her work in which her painting structures are predetermined by complex counting instructions the artist imposes upon herself.  Every color, line, and dot is in place because of deliberate execution of those rules.  And even while rigor may describe the manifest structure of these paintings, it does not fully encompass the way or why these painting are formed. They are neither exclusive explorations of mathematics and time systems nor are they only personal and hermetic figuration.

These paintings have sources in that they are made up from series of significant cultural and personal dates in Jane’s lifetime and they reflect the painter’s fascination with accounts of near death experiences: the fast flash of the past, the soft glowing light, the altering effect and the intimacy of the moment. These things are woven in to her system of numbers, texture, color and pattern, a system that has as much to do with a structure of numbers as it has to do with sustaining the self of the artist. This is not hyperbole. For Xylor Jane, numbers are more than just substrates from which she conjures gentle or strident patterns, they are her collaborators and vital effluence.  How else could works of apparent mathematical origin evoke such things as humor and vulnerability or obsession and love?

Most of us looking at these paintings cannot hold the layering of prime number sequences, numerical palindromes and strict rules of coloration in our minds all at once. What we do see however, is the absolute and uncanny necessity of those systems to both the work and to Jane. This is what gives them their internal coherence. What we get from these paintings and what so holds our attention is the deep sense of reassurance that comes from that coherence. »

"Crisscross" is a group of recent oil paintings from the Via Crucis series I began Spring 2009. The series is based on the 14 Stations of the Cross.  Numbers 2, 5, 11 and 13 deal with The Cross specifically: bearing the cross; cruxifiction, and being deposed from it.

In 2002, I saw Barnett Newman's Stations of the Cross paintings at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and decided to pursue my own.  These four paintings are the latest to come out of my studio. They complete the series of 14. » - Xylor Jane

Contact presse: Isaline Vuille +33 1 45 83 71 90 / isaline@alminerech.com