jeffrey equality brooks - Be Honest

Waterstreet Studios Gallery
Batavia, IL
Opening Reception: Friday, November 12th, 2021, 6-9pm
Runs until December 4th, 2021

contemporary figurative paintings featuring stencils, sprayed automotive paints, broken glass, sand, resin, enamel, metal flake, 3D elements, flocking, 24k gold, silver, and copper leaf

I’m thrilled to bring this body of work to Water Street Studios Gallery in Batavia, IL in a duo show with Harry Sudman. This body of paintings includes pieces that I’ve been working on for the last three years, most of which have never been shown together in Illinois. Those that haven’t seen my paintings might be bewildered to hear that they are mostly built up from spraying automotive paints with mega-detailed cut one-time use stencils. And in this work you’ll also see paint mixed with silica, 24k gold and copper leaf, broken glass, cut and layered strips of transparent vinyl, brushed enamel, stacks of resin, and of course you’ll see my obvious love affair with hot rod paints with oodles of metal flakes and candied paints. You can click into any of these images to get more info about materials or sizes as well as more detailed photos and to purchase.

This is the start of a halo series I’m currently working on. These four are 40x40x1.5 inches on stretched canvas. This series is built off a pearled and aluminum paint base that was hit with a metal flake. Subsequent layers (oh, which there are a ton of) are transparent or “candies” (as folks say in the auto paint world ) to let the viewer peer into the paint to see the sparkle below. Halos are 24k gold and copper, then the pieces are finished off with an automotive clear coat, which I think looks awesome, but it’s pretty hard to photograph. (if you click into the “Saviors” page there is a super small video of how I made that painting).

The topic of the paintings in my halo series like this one focuses on the difficult necessity of active choice when moving from generational beliefs and traditions. All the while, completely acknowledging that I’m relying on arcane visual language to add gravitas.

LOST + safe are 40x40x1.5 inch paintings on stretched canvas. These words have a draw for me and I have liked them paired since I heard a CD of this title. These have a super subtle flake to them and are built on a ground coat of pearls. The “blacks” are a flat finish but have silica mixed into them that give a really exciting (at least to me ) lifted texture to such a flat graphic part of the paintings.

This series of paintings is playing with two-color reductions, in this rule of simplification I was able to try some pretty fun and rich materials.
Emily in Blue: was created with a simple light color ground and transparent blue vinyl strips nestled in acrylic polymer.
Grace in Copper: this color is in fact literally copper and corrosion, making up the blue-green.
Stacey: is built on a glossy aluminum base paint with a simple matte purple.
Birth Of Venus: perhaps the hardest to explain in text is a 3D piece where the light color ( 24k gold leaf) lifts an inch or so above a satin black sandy textured base.

Just before the stay-at-home order in 2020, (I took that order seriously since I have severe asthma) I got to work with this wonderful model and was able to produce these pieces all from the same photo session.

two air pressures: is made with a single mixture of black paint on board, the stenciled foreground is rendered solely by changing air pressure on my spray equipment. My goal was to find an intersection of the passion of Joan of arc and The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa.
Mädchenkopf: is my open love letter to David Lynch and Gerhard Richter who are masters of mood and their craft. It’s a thick piece with alternating layers of transparent vinyl strips and poured resin over a silver paint base.
can we admit some lies we've told each other: is another massively thick piece that uses a silver base and builds layers that include broken glass and metal flake, transparent vinyl, and of course candied automotive paints. Finally, it’s topped with a flat black and silica-laden layer that gives textures that you want to touch so bad.
AND IT'S A SIN TO LIVE SO WELL: is the only one in this little series that is on stretched canvas. It’s building on the idea of flakes and opaques back and forth.

This might be a nice place to mention that with all but one very obvious exception (yet to come) these photos are folks I know or have met personally, 99.99 percent of the time I work from my own photo sources. Sometimes the person is a family member or fellow artist and sometimes they are just a cool person I met on a train, as is the case of the model for Sonder.

Sonder : is defined as "the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own".
Don’t talk sense to my sparkling heart: while it has the usual suspects of materials used, the black details are painted with a sparkling silica-loaded paint that reads almost like jagged quartz.
Often the music I’m listening to finds its way into the paintings I’m planning, Some nights she is a pharmacist is one such piece; I heard the line, I imagined the image, and went right to painting.
And finally, in this group is a self-portrait that is in fact not sprayed. I glazed very very very thick layers to make up the color portions and the black is loaded with the silica texture, giving the painting a tar-like feeling.

Be Polite, Say Something Vague: is a fun one with its flakes only visible through thick, lifted but narrow slits of pearl paints and topped with a layer of flocking to make the lettering. If you’re not familiar with flocking, think fuzzy insides of jewelry boxes.
I Don't Know What's Wrong With Me (i think that i just crave attention): somehow i think that the title says it all. Again, in real life, the finish of the paint with the pearl is a ton of fun.
WHAT WE HIDE, WHAT WE SHOW: mounted in an oak frame and painted on aluminum, has a 4 color palette of pearl white, silver, metal leaf and candy apple purple.

Cap'n Hop: is a super fun piece with metal flake and candied silver, but the real fun, the real fun is when you realize the white is flocking material — yes he is a fuzzy bunny.
NORMAL: has a graphic that is painted so thick it seems to float above the silver textured background.
I Want What's Yours: is me looking at the figure and breaking it down in a different way than most of my other work but still pushing it to abstraction.
SOME SETTLING MAY OCCUR: once again, like all the work at varying levels, photography doesn’t really tell you the story of this piece. This whole painting has a glowing sheen of candied paint over a reflective base that is a treat to invite the viewer to look a little closer while the metaphor slowly creeps in.
AND SILVER BUTTONS ALL DOWN HER BACK: was a goal to once again abstract the figure, this time as if Saul Bass had painted it. And then to make the render interesting to me and my material fetish I used flocking for the shape of the corsets and the letters were created by cutting thin sheets of aluminum, stacking and painting them with a purple candy. Are you reciting the nursery rhyme yet?
Last but not least is Elvis: this is the one piece in the show that uses someone else’s image as source, and is my nod to Andy Warhol’s and Jeff Koons’ Elvis pieces. It’s built on an aluminum and pearl white painted base and then I sprayed broken glass on the figures before coating super thick layers of resin and transparent vinyl.

Ok guys, that is what I’m showing for “be honest” at Water Street Studios Gallery in Batavia. I hope you decide to come out and see the show in person. If you aren’t in the area and are looking to purchase one of these artworks please reach out.