I'll Come Back Again: Jordy Kerwick

Union Gallery is pleased to present Jordan Kerwick’s I’ll Come Back Again, his first solo exhibition with the gallery, curated by William Gustafsson

Kerwick brings an eclectic body of work to this wildly outlandish exhibition. Expanding his on-going still-life series, the artist pushes forward his visual language with full-frontal depictions of predatory animals, such as tigers and serpents. These threating animals are voided of reality, often pictured as doubled headed, acting as mythical taxidermy, trophies of Kerwick’s imagination bringing a sense of ominous threat without the actual fear of looming attack.

Colourful women, void of race, populate Kerwick’s canvases, avatars of female representation, communicating lust and enticement, like classical muses. Often they are depicted as lamps, again conveying the domestic into the subject. Kerwick’s recurring series of vases are filled with plants and their flowers in full bloom, bringing vitality and optimism into the frame. Yet, continued elements of menace and peril, aggression litter Kerwick’s canvases. Toxic cigarettes and pills subtly give the sense of anxiety yet also relief.

Kerwick’s painting practice is ever expanding. The use of various mediums and techniques is of constant interest to the artist. Within each canvas beyond the obvious pictorial representations is Kerwick’s use of abstraction. Kerwick’s way of working is spontaneous and expressionistic yet his mark marking is heavily considered. His monochromatic backgrounds and use of colours is reminiscent of modern colour field painting, blocking out the free-floating central figures. Kerwick’s joyful pastel colour palette allows the viewer some relief within the charged subject matters.

The surreal world created by Kerwick holds a fierce sense of freedom riffled with hints to the ominous nature of life. Each work is a snap shot into Kerwick’s interior imagination and holding his greater narrative. We are left to experience Kerwick’s “home” in all that he gives us.