The musicality of these shimmering visual relationships within and among the works are a joy to behold. Brimming with light and clarity, “Red over Morning Sea,” like its majestic brethren, is hung from the ceiling rather than on the wall, and transcends the pull of gravity without effort. The total shape of the work takes on the character of the United States’ geographic dimensions. Both sunrise and sunset, it crackles within a translucent veil of interference-inflected acrylic tides. The standout track “Red Over Morning Sea” features a smoldering cadmium red stroke that travels at warp speed across the painting’s surface. “Hers and His,” 2018, acrylic, cotton, scenic Bogus paper, and wood 86 x 67 inches (left) and “Red over Morning Sea,” 2021, acrylic, curtain lace, shredded mail, produce bag netting, and wood 65 x 84 x 4 inches, courtesy of Ortuzar Projects/Photo: Michael Tropea Installation view, “Suzanne Jackson: Listen’ N Home” at The Arts Club of Chicago. Acrylic medium is poured, peeled and pressed together, unlocking its unparalleled versatility while Bogus paper-a lightweight recycled paper used for a variety of applications, and first encountered by Jackson as a set designer-lends a layered and deceptively sturdy armature to many of the pieces. Painting is often about its ability to suggest illusion, but in this show, Jackson expands its vocabulary in decidedly sculptural ways. Indeed, many of the elements that comprise these luminous objects (metal scraps, dried and discarded paint, plastic netting) might have ended up as garbage had Jackson’s keen eye for textural contrast and her ecological mindset not held sway. Like the challenging musical idiom, her mixed-media works emulate the intensity and insistence on material diversity, and aren’t always easy to take in.
#Lightweight translucent paper full#
In this mini-retrospective, the music of Jackson’s life is born out in her works’ staccato rhythms and a maximalist aesthetic that is the visual equivalent of John Coltrane’s free jazz masterpiece “Ascension” played at full volume.
Prior to the pandemic, Jackson was the co-host of “Listen Hear,” a weekly jazz program on Savannah State University Radio. In fact, the show’s title “Listen’ N Home” is a reference not only to the artist’s early childhood experiences of Chicago jazz on 78s-imported to California via the highly attuned tastes of her lively aunts-but also to the rich and important role music has, and continues to play in her life.
“Da Wha Yu Sae,” 2008, acrylic, linen, mixed papers, muslin, and canvas, 91 x 61 x 4 inches, courtesy of Ortuzar Projects/Photo: Michael Tropeaįrom the titles of the fourteen large-scale works on display, down to the physical stuff that they’re made of, references to music, jazz and the blues abound. Yet, as exciting and illuminating as her story is, it’s Jackson’s work, on view at The Arts Club of Chicago, that speaks volumes about what it takes to make not just a career, but a life in the arts and the dividends that kind of commitment can yield. Referring to her as simply a “painter” fails to capture the unique scope and depth of her artistic accomplishments-not to mention her poetry, or the decades of teaching. Jackson has been Savannah-based since the mid-nineties.
In the late 1960s, she took classes with Charles White at the Otis College of Art and Design, ran a renowned Los Angeles artist’s space called Gallery 32 and, in the eighties, studied theater design at Yale with Ming Cho Lee. Louis native grew up in territorial Alaska, studied painting in San Francisco, and toured throughout South America as a dancer. “Saudades,” 2019-2022, acrylic, layered acrylic detritus, acrylic media, bag and deer netting, textiles, plastic, bamboo, bells, scenic Bogus paper, metal, stones, loquat seeds, chain, leather string, organic plant matter and metal barrel tops, dimensions variable, courtesy of Ortuzar Projects/Photo: Michael TropeaĪrtist Suzanne Jackson has an enviable biography, spanning nearly eight decades and most of the Western Hemisphere.
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