JAKE MANNING // guests of space

On view March 16–April 19, 2018
Opening reception Sunday, March 18 (3–5 p.m.)

Nationale and co-curator Paul Maziar present Guests of Space, Jake Manning’s first solo exhibition with the gallery. This body of work is made up of variously-sized, pastel- and night-hued paintings that bear resemblances to the artist’s imagination, memories, and liminal moments that seem to conflate the two. The paintings abound with stories, however fragmented, in settings which often resemble a dream—full of strangeness, irony, gloom, hilarity.

Because Manning began his creative practice making films—seeing, thinking, working primarily in images—there's a feeling that, as he paints, he is seeing the world through new eyes. Guests of Space is a way into this world, one that privileges creative imagination over what most refer to as the ordinary everyday. For Manning, painting allows for a personal, deeply inner experience to be translated outwardly in delightful and relatable ways. He achieves this with recurring figures, simple, semi-familiar, and humorous subjects beset by uncertainty, a sense of doom and loss that mirror our daily experience. These paintings are a reminder that—unlike the past and the future—it is in fact imagination, story, and play that one can rely on.

Jake Manning was born in Texas, and lives and works in Portland, OR, where he recently graduated from Portland State University. In the fall of 2017, Manning received The Arlene Schnitzer Visual Arts Prize (Third Place), an award from the Harold & Arlene Schnitzer CARE Foundation recognizing excellence in visual art. His work has been shown at the Portland International Film Festival and at Autzen Gallery (PSU). Manning has been accepted to the MFA program at Alfred University.

PRESS & MORE
Interview with Paul Maziar

IMAGES