OXFORD, Miss. – Objects portrayed at rest can move the intellect and emotions. Just ask Philip R. Jackson.
The
assistant professor of painting at the University of Mississippi
presents the exhibit “Still Life Theater,” an 18-piece display of his
work at University Museum. The exhibit runs through May 3, with a
reception for Jackson scheduled for 2 to 4 p.m. April 26.
While
the subject matter of each painting is easily identifiable, the
artist’s arrangements are intended to cause viewers to walk away with
their own interpretations.
“I myself was deeply moved while
viewing paintings by masters such as Morandi, Vermeer, Shardan,
Velasquez and Uglow,” Jackson said. “Seeing these masterworks had a
huge, instrumental impact upon my direction as a professional artist. I
became serious about using still lifes to make people think more about
their surroundings.”
Albert Sperath, museum director, thinks Jackson’s own paintings achieve his objective.
“Philip’s exquisite still lifes evoke a question mark in my mind,” Sperath said. “They are reminiscent of traditional super realism, but as objects are presented in odd juxtapositions, strange relationships begin to form and a whole new world is created in his theater tableaus.”
This is precisely what Jackson desires.
“The process of discovery is what I want – for each viewer to be surprised by the different types of visual and emotional tensions,” Jackson said.
The pieces in Jackson’s show were all painted between 2004 and 2009. He said he uses a technique first employed by master artist Jan van Eyke. The artist starts each painting as a grisaille (monochromatic tones of gray), and slowly adds thin layers of color on top, thereby infusing them with illumination and life.
“I want each painting to be saturated with vibrancy and life,” Jackson said. “Behind each work, there is a story.”
For example, “A Family Experience” came out of the birth of Jackson’s daughter, Sophia Grace. Born in 2007 with Down syndrome and severe heart defects, she had to have two open-heart surgeries before she was a year old. Jackson and his wife, Nicole, have a second daughter, Julia, who was born a year later.
“While the iconography reveals a tragic experience, I believe it also portrays hope,” Jackson said.
A Cincinnati native, Jackson earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in fine art from Columbus College of Art & Design and Bowling Green State University, respectively. He also studied at Studio Art Centers International in Florence, Italy, and toured the great galleries found in London, Paris, Barcelona and Madrid. He joined the UM art department faculty in 2006.
Some of Jackson’s work is owned by the Evansville (Ind.) Museum of Art and the Fort Wayne (Ind.) Museum of Art. While an artist-in-residence at the former, he was the youngest ever to be given a solo show. Jackson received a $10,000 award from the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation in Montreal. He received an Individual Artist Grant and Research Fellow from the Mississippi Arts Commission in 2008.
University Museum, Fifth Street and University Avenue, is open from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 1 to 4:30 p.m. Sunday. For more information or for assistance related to a disability, visit http://www.olemiss.edu/museum/ or call 662-915-7073.