Brooklyn-based artist James Esber paints portraits that blend pop art and surrealism with comic sensibility. His colorful work Selfie II depicts an abstract face with whimsical curls.
About Selfie II Esber says, “I try to trust muscle memory to produce interesting results. The drawing that preceded this painting was started by making dots on the paper and then connecting them. I liked the randomness of that, but also the idea of a faceless face. As I added to the drawing and built the edges of a head around the dots, I decided to use my own head as a template and make a kind of self-effacing self-portrait.”
Esber’s work nods to lifelong inspirations including Norman Rockwell, Picasso, MAD magazine, Hummel figurines, R. Crumb and artists of his generation like Nicole Eisenman, John Currin, Inka Essenhigh, and his wife of 38 years Jane Fine.
Selfie II will be on display in a group show with Jane Fine, Tracey Goodman, and Jim Leen at Catskill Art Space in Livingston Manor through October 26.
Established in 1971, Catskill Art Space reopened in October 2022 following a major renovation and expansion of its multi-arts center. The art center presents exhibitions, performances, and events featuring national and regional talents.
James Esber and Jane Fine will present three intertwined bodies of work that exist at the border between figuration and abstraction. Ruggedly masculine passages bump against petite strings of flowers. Conceived as a three-person show created by two people, the exhibit is titled “Three-Sided Coin” and showcases individual and collaborative pieces made under the pseudonym J. Fiber.
The images made by Esber and Fine employ acrylic, colored pencil, graphite, and ink. The couple typically pass drawings back and forth, challenging each other throughout the process. The boundary between his and hers is always meaningful, and their drawings are rife with drama.
“We both had plenty of our own pieces to choose from but decided not to use any existing J. Fiber pieces, and instead to make one large new work. This ended up being a snake-like cluster of 11 collaborative drawings which butt up to each other and carry forms, ideas, and colors from one drawing directly into the next,” say Esber. “It’s a bit of a food fight for sure, but hopefully a beautiful one. The thing I love about collaborations is that they throw you off balance and bring new things into your work.”
“I don’t believe that an artist should start with an idea and create the form to communicate it,” Esber adds. “I think it’s much more interesting to draw from ideas which excite you and make a piece in response to them. Ultimately, there should be a lot of room for interpretation. I think an artist’s role is to create a beautiful and original hybrid form from which the viewer can construct their own meaning,”
This article appears in September 2024.
