Jamie Zeccola : BRUT POESY @ 2 Rivington
Ocotber 11 – 17, 2022  |  12pm – 8pm

Straitjacket Arts is pleased to present Brut Poesy, Jamie Zeccola’s second solo exhibition at Parasol Projects debuts a new series of works that showcases his absurd ability to find humor and irony in the human condition.

“Poetry is what happens when nothing else can.” —Charles Bukowski

Referencing art brut, a French term invented by the painter Jean Dubuffet, that translates as ‘raw art’, Zeccola’s paintings use the raw expression of his visions and emotions to reveal the suggestive materiality of the painted surface. He embraces the poetic possibilities of the paint with a push and pull simplicity that evokes the outsider narratives and pure poetry of Bukowski. The interplay between the painted words and vivid images complement each other in unforeseen ways, as they dance with the devil they pulse with a sense of real time and commitment. With textured brushwork and multiple layers, these sculptural canvases claim their rightful place in the gallery space: they are at once nothing and everything, tiny flecks in a vast cosmos, lost in space, but never forgotten. Painted in jaunty colors, the neon paintings come alive as the lushness of pigment surrenders to the illusion of spatial distance. The reds, greens, and dabs of pink become worthy vistas unto themselves, while also conveying the luminous mystery of poetry. Zeccola’s playfulness with the paint is primitive, intimate, and a teasing mimicry about joy and pain. With a love of language and everyday objects, his work tickles the troubled mind, as it comments on the modern world it laughs right in society’s face. The isms go away; the ist finally dies; the art remains!

The painting The Spinner, like a living object, really spins round and round on the wall. The Dead or Alive record is the perfect metaphor for life; it never stops spinning and it makes you dance. In another painting, The Drunken Boat, a wooden boat is waiting to go over a blue waterfall. Rimbaud is written on the side of the mountain, he shines like silver in the yellow sun, life is a tragic comedy of errors. After the Gold Rush has a thrown-together feel, as if it was built from scratch, it’s all over the place and bereft of any fixed location. The painter is a miner in disguise, searching for his gold, he digs deeper and deeper until he finds it. JCV is a painting within a painting, the crooked frame is vengeful and cunning, the joke is on you, the punchline is a painted mess.

Although varying in style, these new paintings share a freedom of form, abundant use of color and a childlike quality that epitomizes the Art Brut movement. “With keywords and lush colors, I want to weave a rich tapestry of lingo and pictures,” Zeccola says, “thus creating a comical expression of joyful absurdity. ”