Jake Longstreth
Pace Prints
21 days left
Jake Longstreth is known for his wry yet endeared depictions of American landscapes with a focus on the in-between spaces in the state of California. Amid the Southwest bramble, Longstreth anchors the viewer to signs of iconic global brands: the ubiquitous arches of a McDonald’s atop a hill, a FedEx truck nestled in the bushes, and Toys R’ Us and Hooters signage towering above highway hedges; their understated positions in space imbue them with subtle humor.
The coexistence of the natural world and built environment sit with
sweetness and irony, as Longstreth favors retail chains from an earlier
zeitgeist to furnish otherwise timeless natural landscapes.
In his new hard ground etching series, Longstreth is interested in addressing contemporary themes using a traditional technique. His mark making – a combination of stippling, crosshatching, and striations – accumulates to gently reveal technological and corporate aspects of our world we might casually encounter at the edge of a parking lot or along a road. Palo Alto, 1970 is a snapshot of a time and place at the beginning of its emergence as the famed technological center of the world. The Santa Clara Valley, once named the “Valley of Heart’s Delight” in the 19th century, would be known as Silicon Valley beginning in 1971. The etching is an imagined scene, where we see a large satellite dish nestled at the bottom of a hillside, with eucalyptus and palm trees in the foreground.
Jake Longstreth (b. 1977, Sharon, CT, US; lives and works in Los Angeles, CA, US) received his MFA from California College of the Arts in San Francisco, CA. He has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions, most recently “American Heat” and “Springtime at the Scottsdale, Arizona Walmart” at Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin; “Springtime in Southern California” at Nino Mier Gallery, Brussels; “Seasonal Concepts” (2021) and “Brick and Mortar” (2019) at Nino Mier Gallery, Los Angeles; “Pastures and Parking Lots: Outtakes and Rarities” (2003-2016) at the Crisp Ellert Museum, St Augustine; among several others. His work has also been featured in group exhibitions at Galerie Max Hetzler, Paris; David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles; Almine Rech, New York; M Woods, Beijing; Night Gallery, Los Angeles; Sebastian Gladstone, Los Angeles; and Blum & Poe, Los Angeles.
Along the 134
Along the 134 depicts a large, blackened palm tree intercepted by a eucalyptus tree, both non-native trees introduced to Southern California in the 19th century and are now a ubiquitous part of the landscape. Asking “Is the palm tree dead, charred by a brush fire or just dingy from decades of absorbing exhaust and smoke from the freeway it grows along?” Perhaps the answer is contained somewhere in the deposits of ink, but before we can form assumptions, the artist answers “I DON’T KNOW”
Longstreth in Pace Prints Studios
