Jonathan Lyndon Chase
Jonathan Lyndon Chase by Coke O’Neal. Courtesy of Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles.
Often more than 10 feet tall and featuring glitter, bright hues, and larger-than-life subjects, Jonathan Lyndon Chase’s canvases are understandably difficult to ignore. Beyond their materiality and formal qualities, they demand attention—and visibility—for the queer black bodies they depict. For instance, the painting Butt naked dressed in nothing but pearls (2018) relishes gender nonconformity: The subject wears a beard, close-cropped hair, bright red lips, and the titular gems.
During Art Basel in Miami Beach last December, the art world was drawn to the Rubell Family Collection to see Chase’s dynamic paintings. The following March, his work was in demand at Kohn Gallery’s booth at The Armory Show; the Los Angeles gallery began representing the artist in 2017 (he also shows with Company Gallery in New York). In 2018, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art added a work by Chase to its collection; and during The Armory Show’s VIP preview this year, more institutions eagerly acquired his works, including Minneapolis’s Walker Art Center and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami.
Major collectors—including the Rubells, Beth Rudin DeWoody, and the Hort family—have added Chase’s work to their stock, as well. “Jonathan challenges gender and sexuality in such a raw, delightfully unapologetic way,” explained Laura Dvorkin, curator of the Beth Rudin DeWoody Collection and the Bunker Artspace in West Palm Beach, Florida.
