Galerie Max Hetzler, London, is happy to current California Landscapes, a solo exhibition of recent work and works on paper by Jake Longstreth. That is the artist’s second solo exhibition with the gallery, and his first within the London area.
In his follow, Jake Longstreth recounts the altering landscapes of our time. Devoid of human presence, his works are characterised by a quiet commentary of rural and suburban North America. By way of meticulously rendered depictions of nature and artifical buildings, Longstreth captures the essence and specificity of a time and place. Absorbing the landscapes round him, the artist displays again his on a regular basis world, inviting us to pause, linger and really look. His works, which regularly incorporate glimpses of manufactured constructions peeping via the undergrowth, aren’t supposed as critiques on society. Fairly, portraying what he describes as merely ‘simply there’, his compositions stay fluid and open-ended.
For this exhibition, Longstreth presents a brand new physique of oil on canvas work and works on paper, from 2024 and 2025. Depicting vistas of Southern California, from Los Angeles to the desert, Longstreth’s landscapes are united by a brand new, brown-hued palette. Contrasting brilliant gentle with deep shadow, this darker tone marks an aesthetic growth for the artist. Imbued with a classical really feel, his works depict scenes from nature, punctuated with the quotidian markers of our period: workplace buildings, parking heaps, tennis courts, bridges, and roads.
The pristine glass of a contemporary workplace constructing, flanked by a set of majestic oak timber, displays a mirror picture of the encompassing panorama within the portray Agoura. In Los Angeles (2), via a sun-dappled opening lined with dense foliage and eucalyptus timber, one spots the crisp geometry of a tennis court docket. A recurring theme in Longstreth’s work, virtually synonymous with the L.A. panorama, the artist sees tennis courts as apolitical motifs: ‘I like portray them as a result of they’re very benign’, he explains. In works reminiscent of Chavez Ravine or Elysian Park then again, the gray expanse of a car parking zone friends out via the undergrowth. ‘These,’ he remarks, ‘are slightly extra pointed.’ Inside a up to date context, the car parking zone inevitably takes on significance as ‘a really highly effective icon’ via which to view broader societal themes.
Longstreth’s works are set in walnut frames, drawing out the dusky silhouettes and swimming pools of daylight. They seize one thing of the distinctive ambiance of Southern California, with its brilliant, all-encompassing gentle, and darkish, virtually cavernous shadow. Rendered on a bigger scale in comparison with the works on paper, the work have what the artist describes as ‘a extra metaphorical or open-ended really feel to them.’ In works reminiscent of In Los Angeles, the artist paints the tactile intricacies of this pure atmosphere with exacting element: we see the bark on the timber, textured foliage and flowering bushes. Within the distance, a street cuts via the greenery, lined by tall palms. Longstreth’s timber usually act as gentle sponges, offset by expansive areas of shade. One of many influences on his palette was the photographer Carleton Watkins (1829–1916), who documented the US within the nineteenth century. Watkins’ pictures, among the many first taken of California, equally convey its dazzling gentle via deep, contrasting tones.
Composed on a extra intimate scale, Longstreth’s works on paper symbolize various site-specific areas, as their titles stipulate. In Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the viewer can simply make out the construction of a NASA lab, partially shrouded by the branches of an enormous tree, nestled deep within the foothills. Alongside I-210 presents a stretch of freeway, alongside which a particular blue Amazon truck hurtles by. Longstreth’s physique of labor paints a wealthy image of an evolving panorama: bleached in daylight, blanketed in shadow, hazy from the Californian smog, artifical buildings rising from the surroundings. The palette and temper are very constant; the sunshine is timeless and unifying. Contextualising the encounters of each day life, Longstreth’s landscapes present a visceral sense of lived expertise.
