joseph scissorhands: Jack Pierson

Sunday 14 July 2024

Jack Pierson

Jack Pierson - YOU ARE THE SUN, 2024

Artist Jack Pierson is well known for his sculptural typographic installations, and it was certainly these that brought his work to my attention initially. The wood and metal letters are salvaged from a variety of commercial sources both vintage and new, and are arranged in a mixture of differing fonts and font sizes both upper and lowercase. The results are pleasingly jarring visually, like collaged ransom notes. The first typographic sculpture installed in the exhibition is titled Peter Blake (2024), and is named after one of Britain's very own leading artists who came to prominence in the 1960s during the Pop Art explosion. Interestingly Blake known for his love of typography and the inclusion of it in his paintings as well as his graphic design commissions, references and pays homage to Pierson and his art in a series of his own typographic artworks entitled Appropriating Jack Pierson, sparking an artistic dialogue and friendship between the two artists. States Blake, “These pieces are my nod of appreciation, a way of saying thank-you to artists whose work I like. It began with Appropriating Jack Pierson. I liked Pierson’s work and wanted one for myself, so decided to make my own”. In this exhibition you can clearly see the influence Blake's Pop collages have on Pierson in the large collaged pieces such as MALE/FEMALE ARRAY. They are homages to Blake's collaged works which similarly reference film and pop stars of the past, and anonymous models adopting beefcake and cheesecake poses. I liked these large, densely layered collages as they are an element of Pierson's work I was unaware of. Like Blake, Pierson is clearly a huge fan of pop culture, and he references film and music stars of the past and present. I was also unaware of Pierson's photographic output with which he gained prominence in the art world along with other documentary photographers of the Boston School like David Armstrong, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Nan Goldin, and Mark Morrisroe. The photographs here are mostly male nude studies and for the most part seem seem to be about repetition in what is I suppose another nod to the Pop Art movement and namely the art of Andy Warhol. This is Pierson's first UK show in 20 years and makes for an interesting addition to the art scene here.