GALLERY 2

SAM JACKSON

RETROSPECTIVE: FIFTEEN YEARS

Saturday 8th July - Saturday 2nd September 2023

GIANT Gallery and CHARLIE SMITH LONDON are excited to join forces to present the first survey exhibition of Sam Jackson’s career - Retrospective: Fifteen Years. The exhibition will track Jackson’s practice from his graduation in 2007 from the Royal Academy Schools to the present day, emphasizing key influences, developments and inspirations.

This mid-career retrospective reflects my central negotiation with the language of painting and my own development in pursuing an autobiographical practice through the medium of paint. Taken as a body of work, what is presented is a sustained and dedicated  enquiry into a deconstruction of the historical canon of European painting. Combined with a pop cultural interplay from my own personal life, a  journey between the masculine and feminine subject, where song lyrics, diary notes, half- remembered poems, tattoos, are rendered in a spectral fugue embrace. Falling into a mise em abyme of stories, each painting my being within and without, played out within the arena of life and painting.

Image: Sam Jackson 'When Doves Cry', 2019 Oil, pencil, diamanté on board 32x22cm.

Close up portrait of a person with tattoo style text over their face. Against a red background.

Touching From a Distance, 32x22.5cm, Oil, Marker and Spray Paint on Board, 2019.

Close up portrait of a doe eyed lady with blue and red tear-style tattoos and text over her skin and neck.

The Important Thing, Always, Was To Remember Who You Were, 32x22.5cm, Oil, Maker, Pencil and Spray Paint on Board, 2019.

Close up portrait of a woman with tattoo style text over her face. Against a yellow- warm toned background.

Lovers From Hell, 10x15cm, Oil on Board, 2014.