Jesse Mockrin - The Venus Effect - Exhibitions

Images

Installation view, Jesse Mockrin: The Venus Effect, James Cohan, 48 Walker Street, NY, September 8 - October 21, 2023

Installation view, Jesse Mockrin: The Venus Effect, James Cohan, 48 Walker Street, NY, September 8 - October 21, 2023

Installation view, Jesse Mockrin: The Venus Effect, James Cohan, 48 Walker Street, NY, September 8 - October 21, 2023

Installation view, Jesse Mockrin: Women grieving, James Cohan, 48 Walker Street, NY, September 8 - 16, 2023

JESSE MOCKRIN

Herself unseen, 2023

Oil on canvas

37 x 25 in.
94 x 63.5 cm

JCG14908

JESSE MOCKRIN

The Venus Effect, 2023

Oil on cotton

36 x 72 in. (91.4 x 182.9 cm) each
36 x 144 in. (91.4 x 365.8 cm) overall

JCG14902

JESSE MOCKRIN

Enchantment, 2023

Oil on cotton

58 x 40 in.
147.3 x 101.6 cm

JCG15712

JESSE MOCKRIN

Divination, 2023

Oil on cotton

37 x 25 in.
94 x 63.5 cm

JCG14909

JESSE MOCKRIN

Reputed fair, 2023

Oil on cotton

37 x 25 in.
94 x 63.5 cm

JCG14910

JESSE MOCKRIN

Echo, 2023

Oil on cotton

72 x 50 in. (182.9 x 127 cm) each
72 x 100 in (182.9 x 254 cm) overall

JCG14904

JESSE MOCKRIN

Exhibition, 2023

Oil on cotton

29 x 20 in.
73.7 x 50.8 cm

JCG14907

JESSE MOCKRIN

Sorceress, 2023

Oil on cotton

29 x 20 in.
73.7 x 50.8 cm

JCG14906

JESSE MOCKRIN

Works and deceits, 2023

Oil on cotton

78 x 54 in.
198.1 x 137.2 cm

JCG15084

JESSE MOCKRIN

The lover and the beloved, 2023

Oil on cotton

72 x 84 in. (182.9 x 213.4 cm) each
72 x 168 in (182.9 x 426.8 cm) overall

JCG14900

JESSE MOCKRIN

Vixen, 2023

Oil on cotton

40 x 28 in.
101.6 x 71.1 cm

JCG14905

Press Release

James Cohan is pleased to present The Venus Effect, an exhibition of new paintings by Jesse Mockrin, on view at 48 Walker Street from September 8 through October 21, 2023. This is Mockrin’s first solo exhibition with James Cohan. The gallery will host an opening reception with the artist on Friday, September 8 from 6-8 PM. A conversation between Mockrin and Adam Harris Levine, Associate Curator of European Art at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto will take place at 48 Walker on Thursday, September 14 at 6 PM.

Extracting details from European Old Master paintings, Jesse Mockrin recontextualizes cultural narratives and art historical motifs to speak to the present. In The Venus Effect, Mockrin explores historical representations of women with mirrors, ranging from scenes of the toilette to biblical and mythological narratives of reflection. The Venus effect, named for the art historical tradition of images that depict Venus gazing into a mirror, is a perceptual phenomenon wherein the viewer is fooled into believing that Venus is looking at her own reflection. In reality, her line of sight in the mirror connects with the viewer of the painting or the painter who created it. Mockrin sees this as an apt metaphor for these historical paintings themselves, which profess to portray women’s self-obsession, but instead depict a female subject gazing adoringly at the male painter who fashioned her.

For centuries, images of women painted by men have depicted women’s beauty and nudity in the service of revealing an innate feminine vanity, greed, or wantonness. Mockrin reveals whose narcissism and gratification is truly on display. Through the artist’s contemporary feminist lens, the mirror becomes the tool through which her sitters recognize themselves as both the object of desire and a powerful subject whose agency is antithetical to their original narratives.

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