Experiences that speak to short attention spans and a quick impression, ones that feed the AI machine.
A brief endorphin rush is alright, but what remains after the reel is posted?
Is this art if it doesn’t inspire?
Jeremy Long’s paintings on view in a solo show at Dana L. Wiley Gallery at the Front Street art complex do not fall into this category. They are what some search for in the murky sea of viral clickbait. They are intelligent, informed as they are by the history of art, but are also accessible for their aesthetic beauty.
You don’t need to know much about art to appreciate the color interactions and compositional balance of these paintings. That’s because it is in our human nature to notice and value these elements of art, even if we can’t put our finger on it.
Long’s is the type of art that stays with you after you’ve left the viewing space. The kind you invent stories about; that makes you wonder about its ideation, how it was drawn and filled with texture, knowing that it was made only from ground pigments, oil, two bare hands and a curious mind.
SEQUENCE AND RHYTHM
Long, originally from Chicago, is a Dayton-based artist and Associate Professor of Painting at Wright State University. He is represented by the Bowery Gallery in New York and keeps studios both at Wright State and at home, where a detached garage was lovingly converted to studio space by his wife, painter Colleen Kelsey.
You don’t have to be a painter to appreciate Long’s work, but he could affectionately be called a “painter’s painter” — an artist whose skill and dedication to the craft is noticeable to other painters, and yes, that is a validation.
Long speaks of “poetic meaning over novelty” and “spatial worlds rather than mere images”.
He paints methodically, creating several small sequential studies to figure out the composition and subject of a larger piece. These studies are on display in the show alongside their resulting canvases, symbiotic “sister paintings”.
Credit: Contributed
Credit: Contributed
He describes the process of the studies as an evolution that sets the stage for the big paintings.
Stanley Lewis, Long’s former professor at The Kansas City Art Institute, described his sequential approach.
“The abstracted version had been the start of the big picture, the origin of the whole concept,” he said.
Long’s painting, “The Concert”, is an example of this process.
“The goal is to make a big painting. How I get there is not always a clear path, but I do know that it always has to do with making these other (smaller) paintings without a clear notion as to what is I’m going to be doing.”
He describes the earliest studies in the sequence, which have the idea of figural forms but are quite abstract, as attempting to have a sort of rhythm.
His family members pose for his photos and you will begin to recognize his wife, three children, and their standard poodle as his muses.
“My daughter who plays the cello is very invested, so every time she would practice I would do drawings or sketches of her. I was able to set the stage with that. The idea was to draw or see her from a point of looking up at her.”
In one piece, Colleen is posed in the same manner as a famous Veronese painting, a genesis for the piece.
“I suppose I could set out to purposely not make a painting about the family, and however hard I try it would just end up (the topic). It seems to be the thing closest to me,” he said.
ZONES AND PLANES
There is a sort of structured chaos in the work, with several zones of color and clever planes fitting together like a jigsaw puzzle. He calls this divisions of planes in his composition a “default mechanism”.
He reflected on a piece called “Studio Painting”, inspired by the aforementioned converted garage.
“The painting started out with shapes that were horizontal and vertical planes of colors that were picked out but not sweated over. Then it was a question of altering one, and seeing what began to suggest (the next shape). I would move left to right and say, ‘well, what do I do with this shape?’ and it became architectonic.”
Credit: Contributed
Credit: Contributed
Each figure in “The Concert” is shown in a slightly different point of view, whether you’re looking up, down, or parallel to them. This stems from a Cubist influence.
“The painters that I gravitate to with regard to quasi-Cubist paintings would be painters like Léger, Juan Gris, Picasso, post-WWI Matisse paintings from 1913-17. And of course, Jean Hélion. He was part of that school of Paris but not as exposed as those big guys.
“He was part of this movement called Art of Concrete. He was a non-objective painter, a disciple of Mondrian. And then a chain of events, going off to war and becoming a POW, escaping, drastically changed his work. These forms started to turn into figures, which is something I was very interested in.
“(‘The Studio’) started out as a completely non-objective painting, and then I was trying to chip away at these planes and find what began to become suggestive of a figure or a space, whether it was architectural, or a figure in a space. I got that from Hélion.”
A STRUCTURE JUNKIE
“A lot of art communities flourish without the notion of structure. I’m like a structure junkie. I’ve got to have a 9-5 job. I have to have some sort of objective in the beginning of the day so I can go to bed and think I got some place today, whether it’s a painting or some other project.”
He paints all morning and afternoon before teaching at 4:00, picking his brush back up in the evening.
Every part of the canvas is full and active, a decision Long links to creating connection with the viewer.
“I don’t want somebody to come up close and feel like they’re wasting their time. I like having the painting turned into something that feels empathetic to whoever is looking at it by way of the handling.”
Credit: Contributed
Credit: Contributed
In a smaller side room of the gallery is a collection of Long’s small observational paintings including classically observed still lives and self portraits.
“I was doing everything I could do to garner from life,” he said.
Dana Wiley, who was once a student of Long, opened her gallery at Front Street in 2019, where she hosts five shows a year. Catch this impressive body of work while you have the chance.
HOW TO GO
What: JEREMY LONG Paintings
When: Through May 18 at Dana L. Wiley Gallery, Front Street Building Co., 1001E. 2nd St., Dayton; B/C Entrance, Second Floor
Other: Gallery Talk, “Some Ideas About Paintings”, with Jeremy Long — May 18, 1 p.m. To schedule a viewing contact DanaLWileyGallery@gmail.com.
More info: danalwileygallery.com
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