Lucas Jardin

Lucas Jardin explores the images and messages of mass media by manipulating a range of printed materials. His compositions initially appear entirely abstract, recalling the exuberant canvases of the abstract expressionists. A closer look reveals ghostly snatches of text and images of people and products, barely visible beneath a layer of expressive, sweeping brushstrokes. In his most recent series of works, these brushstrokes are composed not of paint but of solvent, which Jardin smears across the surfaces of posters, advertisements, magazine pages, and other commercial ephemera, partially dissolving their imagery and smearing it. Through such acts of erasure and re-composition, he scrambles these consumer come-ons and merges the distinct visual traditions of abstraction and advertising.