Jacob Littlejohn

Overview
Courtesy of the artist
Courtesy of the artist
Jacob Littlejohn's paintings are informed by the momentary sublime rooted in the vastness of the natural world. The work is centered around landscape as a concept— unity, balance, focal point, and transitions, exploring the tension between conscious and subconscious interpretations of place and spaces. Through continually re-working intervals of space, rhythmic movement, and perspective, the work critiques the human consumption of natural locations, while honouring the poetic everyday subject matter that is often overlooked. Each work attempts to draw from and convey both personal and cultural narratives, surveying notions of time, questioning our perceptions of reality and welcoming the supernatural or enigmatic. Jacob is deeply interested in differing positions of interpretation and challenging conventional perception, which he feels abstraction encourages and believe that each work created is deeply dependent on the ontological experience. Aspects of non-local colour placed alongside familiar hues are combined to celebrate contradictions between actual and non-tangible spatial and pictorial scenes, with the intention of discovering somewhere novel. The compositions truthfully merit the tyranny of the hand. Experiential moments are depicted as chronologies layered across space and time, established on the surface in a non-linear fashion - often inspired by specific natural phenomenon - while bridging conscious and unconscious action. Scale and gesture is a continuing area of discovery for him and it is in this area that he tries to challenge the accuracy of memory, developing ways of composing mood or atmosphere through sudden or prolonged events - like weather or deep time. Rich earth tones, natural pigments used to create a tangible connection to the source and frosty cool colours are combined, layered upon, erased and softened into the painting's surface to simultaneously develop and dissolve a representational image or figure-ground relationship. By fusing different speeds within the works history, a proposal to a lack of hierarchy is made so that figure, ground, subject and process can coexist as one cosmology. The process involves extensive and immersive explorations of place, historical research and folktale preservation in order to learn from the historical significance, incorporating traditional methods of working and reconsidering ideas of documentation, extraction and natural cyclical cycles in order to bridge. The work manifests as paintings and written projects that incorporate natural materials with literal and metaphorical symbolism forming meaning and bridging a connection to research. The materials or methods explored are embedded with time and history that are excavated through different processes like submersion that document the pulse of the earth or a conversation with the tides. These rhythmic movements are used to personify the natural world as they ebb and flow to highlight the vulnerability and subtleties that lie beneath us. Many of the works hold journalistic tendencies that aim to intentionally defy logic through the distortion of reality, while taking narrative influences from both Scottish and local New York myth-making and storytelling. Stories surround us and he believes the history of these narratives can be used as an alternative springboard to remind an audience of our responsibility in how we co-exist within the natural environment in a particularly fragmented world.
Works
  • Jacob Littlejohn, True Altitude, 2023
    Jacob Littlejohn
    True Altitude, 2023
    Oil on linen
    25.4 x 20.32 cm
    10 x 8 in
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Guts Exhibitions 
CV
Courtesy of Max Walker
Courtesy of Max Walker

B. 1995 in Edinburgh. Lives and works in New York.

 

Education

2018 BA (Hons) 1st Class, Painting & Printmaking, Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow

 

Solo Exhibitions

2023 Seeing the Forest Through the Trees, Half Gallery, New York City

2023 Metamorphosis, Half Gallery - Annex Space, New York City

2021 These Days, The Rafiki Gallery, Custom Lane, Leith, Edinburgh

2020 Paper works, Arusha Gallery, 13A Dundas Street, Edinburgh

2019 The Presentation of Self, Arusha Gallery, 13A Dundas Street Edinburgh

2019 Communication Out of Character, 24 Hour Window, The 13th Note, King Street, Glasgow

2018 Jacob Littlejohn Solo Show, Aberdeen, No.8 creative, Curated Stories Studio, 54 Claremont Street, Aberdeen

 

Group Exhibitions

2023 Fresh Nature, Kutlesa Gallery, Switzerland, 14/07-12/08

2023 Tales of Soil and Concrete, Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, London, 13/07-12/08 

2023 White Columns Benefit Auction, White Columns Gallery, New York City, 18/05-01/06

2023 Hawthorn and The Feast of Julian, Arusha Gallery, High Line Nine Galleries, New York City, 16-28/05

2023 No Where, Hunter Open Studios, Hunter MFA Building, New York City, 04-05/03

2023 Witheld, Hunter Open Studios, Hunter MFA Building, New York City, 04-05/03

2023 Immersed, Organised by Jack Siebert, 526 N Western Ave, Los Angeles, 13-18/02 

2022 North, Visual Art Scotland Members Exhibition, Inverness Creative Academy, Inverness 02/12-21/12

2022 Littlejohn & McKenzie, Rafiki Gallery In partnership with Detail Framing, Edinburgh, 15/09 - 22/10

2022 An Alien Show, Diego Rivera Gallery, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, Apr 22/04 - 03/05

2022 Fragments, Fragmentation, & Fractures, Royal Glasgow Institute, Glasgow,  8/04 - 30/04

2022 Between Artists: SFAI Alumni And Students Intersect, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, 13/04 - 13/05

2022 The Wilding, Diego Rivera Gallery, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco 18/03 - 28/03

2022 REVERB, VAS Annual Exhibition, Online Showcase, 19/03 - 29/042021

2021 Fragile Estates, Diego Rivera Gallery, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, 16-24/11

2021 Its About Time, Diego Rivera Gallery, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, 02-12/11

2021 Abstract Zeitgeist, The Biscuit Factory, Edinburgh, 10/09-12/09

2020 30 x 30 Online Edition, SSA Open Call, Online show, 27/11 – 20/12

2020 Love in the Time of COVID, The Alchemy Experiment, 157 Byres Road, Glasgow, 30/10 – 30/11

2020 For Scott & Kev, Group Pop up – Lockdown Show, Ltd Ink Corporation, Edinburgh, 12/06

2020 On the Table, Marram Arts, Online Show 22/05 – 01/09

2020 Open Window, Square Gallery, Online Show, 02/04 – 16/05

2020 Above the Belt, Circus Art Space, Inverness, 24/01 - 02/02

2020 London Art Fair 2020, with Arusha Gallery, Business Design Centre, London, 22/01 – 26/01

2020 Borders Art Fair, Visual Arts Scotland, Borders Events Centre, Springwood Park, Kelso, Scotland, 13/03 – 15/03

2019 SSA | VAS Open 2019, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, 22/12 - 30/01/20

2019 Little Originals, Dock Street Studios, 7th – 28th Dec

2019 HIX Art Award, HIX Gallery, 32 Riving St, EC2A 3LX, London, 14th Sep – 10th Nov

2019 Open call 2019, Delphian Gallery, The Print Space, London, 28/03-9/04

2019 Shortlisted for BEERS Gallery, Contemporary Visions 2019, London 25/1