Frank Jackson’s exhibition combines memory, improvisation, and the residue of materials that are time-sensitive and fragile to generate abstract landscape paintings. This act of place/space-making references both an interior time and space (e.g., recurring memories, imagination, mortality) as well as an invitation to pause, contemplate, and commune in the here and now.
Using the medium of fresco to set the conditions of his engagement, Jackson applies an intonaco (a thin, final layer of lime) to a burlap cloth substrate and then works within the durational constraint of this fast-drying material to embed gestures into the surface of each work. Each active mark uncovers poignant moments within the residue left to crystallize. This curing process has a different relationship to surface and time scale than oil or egg tempera painting, both processes that Jackson also employs in his work. The surface of the fresco pieces, and the way the burlap substrate is revealed in some areas of the composition and untouched in others, center the delicate nature of this process and the playful yet urgent way these works are constructed.
There/There is a body of work that has been made over the past few years in concert with other kinds of painting and material concerns happening in Jackson’s studio. The thread that binds these projects together is Jackson’s refusal to represent bodies in a figurative way. This intention is a deeply personal one, catalyzed by a confrontation with mortality 36 years ago that compelled him to develop a visual lexicon that aligns more authentically with his lived experiences. Fracture, buoyancy, and vibrancy are some of the visual strategies Jackson uses to ask himself and us, “Where am I, where are you, where do we meet, and what residues do we bring?” Jackson is an empathic maker dedicated to building spaces that carry his translations of the lived world into the felt world.
— Michael Jevon Demps,