TRISTRAM LANSDOWNE

Luis De Jesus Los Angeles is very pleased to announce TRISTRAM LANSDOWNE: Digressions, the artist’s first soloexhibition with the gallery. The exhibition will be on view in Gallery 3 from September 17 through October 29, 2022. An opening reception will be held on Saturday, September 17th, from 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm.

The impetus behind Digressions was Lansdowne’s read of Laurence Sterne’s The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, an 18th century novel after which he is named. Lansdowne was particularly struck by the novel’s innovative nonlinear narrative in which humorous digressions are incorporated within the plot to reveal essential truths about the protagonist. Intrigued by this structure, the artist sought to engage this format on a visual scale and applied this practice to his own work. The viewer’s experience of spatial depth makes or breaks these paintings which largely hinge on the edges and transitions between images.

Thematically, Lansdowne explores the various traditions of framing within the art historical canon – from the illusionism found in the murals of Pompeii, the realism of Flemish Renaissance painting, the techniques of American neoclassicism, and finally the pictorial depth of modern art. The trompe-l’oeil employed in Jan van Eyck’s altarpieces, specifically the renderings of statuary in recessed framed spaces, were particularly important to Lansdowne. He approaches the combination of images intuitively, guided by a strategy of loose association and visual rhymes, focusing on tactile and textural connections while avoiding any symbolic intent. The resulting paintings depict ambiguous and illusory spaces that are amalgamations of history, perspective, lighting, and dimensionality.