Rook & Raven Present Jaybo Monk – Game Lapse

The end of the Olympics in London marks the beginning of a new exhibition of works by urban-modernist, Jaybo Monk, who’s largest show to date opens here at Rook
& Raven this August and seeks to explore themes of movement and competition inspired by The Games.

 

Jaybo explains: ‘Game Lapse is the attempt to respond and communicate between viewer and painter on a common base - the Olympic games - in a very emotional and expressive form, breaking the law of the narrative situation and playing with our primary ideas of movement and time. The quest of this show is to cultivate a kind of improvisation using well-known body parts and geometric shapes and giving them new directions.’

 

Jaybo has used motives from vintage sporting photos and memorabilia, which are separated from their original context and painted on canvas. Through this method he succeeds to neutralize their original contents. By using these fragments he discovers them anew and gives them a new content. In doing so, the viewer of the painting is invited to bring something personal to the piece and completes the act of art.

 

Through his technique of hijacking the meaning of visual images - in this case of the Olympic games - Jaybo provokes a vacuum that he refers to as visual silence, which forces the viewer to make his own decisions and rediscover his own self.

 

Jaybo has been living in Berlin since 1986, is co-founder of the culture and fashion magazine Style and the Family Tunes and the fashion label Iriedaily. Since 2005 he has been showing his work regularly in international galleries with solo exhibitions in Los Angeles, New York, London, Paris, Berlin, Perth and Melbourne.

 

An artisan with nomadic tendencies, he has achieved the improbable – credibility within fine art circles and cult-like status among collectors and peers – seamlessly weaving artistic genres from the street to high-art cliques, where his work has been exhibited and coveted worldwide.

 

In the most extensive exhibition of Jaybo’s work in London, Game Lapse presents a selection of paintings, drawings and sculptures covering the expanse of the gallery. One floor will feature works on canvas and the other will be filled with drawings; with both housing various sporting antique-themed installations.

 

‘Game Lapse’ opens to the public on the 17th August at Rook & Raven Gallery through to September 5th 2012.