Jivan Lee "Away From It All" 2020

JIVAN LEE

December 7–19, 2020 Scottsdale Opening Reception | December 10 | 7-9pm

JIVAN LEE Away From It All

Jackson Hole | Scottsdale | AltamiraArt.com

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River Bends - Rio Grande Oil on linen | 52 x 142.5 inches Enquire

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JIVAN LEE Away From It All, is a show that speaks to the nature of my practice, which, at its core, is both a deliberate encounter with the natural world and a record of the dialogue that results. I bring my time and attention into the landscape, immersing myself in every season’s weather and all reaches of day and night. Nature provides happenstance, the uncontrollable, the unpredictable, the wild and raw, the powerful, the beautiful, the calming.

It’s my job to bear witness and welcome into my paintings that which develops on a particular day at a particular place: a thunderstorm in a vast New Mexican landscape; sunrise crawling down a slope; moonlight on an orchard; silence, kinetics, cacophony, rhythm.

In doing so, my work becomes animated

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by the dynamics of a specific place.

Out of each place emerges a more universal story about color and light, momentum and form, energy and time.

Working in nature is a wonderful riddle; I have chosen a subject (or perhaps it chose me) that is impersonal, nonhuman. And yet the more I have delved into landscapes, the more I’ve found that humans and nature are not only inextricably linked—that’s the starting point—but people are the landscapes.

When I am painting outdoors, I inadvertently taste dust and pollen and even the bugs of a place. I inhale the oxygen that plants exhale. I breathe in rivers as they evaporate. Not only do I become the landscape, I give myself back to it. I exhale carbon dioxide. I expel a thunderstorm of critters that live in my throat. I shed the cells of my body into the air and dirt. The substance of me returns to nature. When I die, this return will be absolute. In the grand cycles

of existence, there is little difference between a place and a person. We can temporarily walk around with the sense of being an autonomous individual, but like a raindrop leaving a cloud, we have only changed our form temporarily.

This show pulls together scenes rooted in this revelation. I didn’t paint with the intention of unifying these works into a series. Each day drew me out of myself and into the landscape. That is what shaped the show. The contrast of experiencing a raging thunderstorm or the deep of night amid my own worries about existing in this society, economy, and universe transcends the human and the non-human. Landscape painting thus becomes a mode of relating with the world and humanity at once. I’ve found it’s hard to be out in the elements for very long and not feel changed, to relate to those moments and not reconsider my place in the world—for the better.

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Soft Sky #1 Oil on panel | 24 x 24 inches Enquire

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Around the Corner in the Bright Moonlight Oil on panel | 24 x 24 inches Enquire

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Stormy Day in Muted Light Oil on panel | 60 x 40 inches Enquire

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A Room With a View #8 - Late Day Showers Oil on panel | 24 x 66 inches (triptych) Enquire

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Sunrise Over Ranch Lands Oil on panel | 48 x 36 inches Enquire

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Soft Sky #2 Oil on panel | 24 x 12 inches Enquire

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River Bends - Stillness Before the Day Oil on panel | 36 x 36 inches Enquire

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A Room With a View #2 - Cloudy Morning Oil on panel | 20 x 32 inches (diptych) Enquire

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Cloudscape #1 Oil on panel | 48 x 48 inches Enquire

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Cloudscape #2 Oil on panel | 48 x 48 inches Enquire

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A Room With a View #3 - Silver Storm Oil on panel | 20 x 32 inches (diptych) Enquire

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7038 East Main Street | Scottsdale, Arizona 85251 AltamiraArt.com | 480-949-1256

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