commune

February 28 fri – March 15 sun, 2020

At gallery commune

Jesse Michaels is an artist working in Los Angeles. Self-trained, Michaels has been both an artist and illustrator for over thirty years. For the last five years he has concentrated solely on creating a new art practice, separate from his early illustration work, containing paintings and drawings that focus on the imagery of War and Crime. The show entitled “War and Crime” is the debut exhibition of this series featuring drawings of soldiers, detectives and criminals, it evokes feelings of fatalism, loneliness, excitement, and lurking sexuality.

“Humanity’s dance with violence and cruelty never stops. It’s part of breaking off into a mortal body or something. In the real world, it is tragic and incredibly stupid and vicious, always, but these subjects are an endless source of fascination for art. My pictures do not deal with the realities of crime and war, they are dealing with it as a basis for storytelling and personal image making. The darker sides of life are a mystery. So is love and joy, for that matter. I probably started doing art to make sense of it all but once it is done, you end up with more mysteries.” ー Jesse Michaels

Collaborated with Apt. Gallery (@driftprojects_)