Crematory, 2008
Acrylic on canvas
48 x 48 in.

Jake Longstreth

"All it is" - New Paintings

December 12 - January 31, 2008

Gregory Lind Gallery is pleased to present All it is, new paintings by Oakland-based artist Jake Longstreth. The images in this exhibition, through their often elevated, distant perspectives, invite a regard for the scenic. They interrogate the expansive space of a largely exurban landscape - exploring both the industrial and the pastoral; revealing their blurred dialogue.

Longstreth reduces his images to their basic elements. His flat, light-filled paintings stray liberally from the photographs they are based on, inhabiting a middle ground of painterly subjectivity. Faithful adherence to the observed world is not Longstreth's goal, as he explains: "Painting can be useful in that it simplifies, revealing the abstractions of our current condition through a discerning lack of detail." Indeed, his pictures omit as much information as they provide, while still corresponding to the weight of experience. Such expressive limitations show evidence of the restraint in Longstreth's vision: his work resists itself, stubbornly showing what is - all it is - in an abiding quietude.

Jake Longstreth received his MFA from California College of the Arts, San Francisco. His recent exhibitions include Group Show, EgoPark Gallery, Oakland, CA, 2008; "Real" Space, Mahan Gallery, Columbus, OH, 2007; and Wabi Ranch, Gregory Lind Gallery, San Francisco. A recipient of the 2008 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant and a 2007 Artist in Residence at the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, Nebraska City, NE, Longstreth has been featured in Art in America, Art Forum, and the San Francisco Chronicle. This is Jake Longstreth's second solo show with Gregory Lind Gallery.