Jeremy Lawson, With Fever Comes Attention, 2024, oil on canvas, 60 x 72 inches

Jeremy Lawson
Mayday

May 3 through June 8, 2024
Opens Tuesday, April 30, 2024, 6–8pm

Harper’s Apartment
51 East 74th Street, 2X, New York, NY 10021
Thursday–Saturday, 12–6pm

Harper’s is pleased to announce Mayday, New York-based artist, Jeremy Lawson’s third solo exhibition with the gallery. The presentation features new brushless oil paintings by Lawson and opens Friday, May 3, 6–8pm, with a reception attended by the artist. 

Across Mayday, Lawson deepens his engagement with lineages of abstract expressionism. Rooting his visual language in the tenets of gestural improvisation, Lawson develops spontaneous marks without the aid of a brush—an approach reminiscent of the unconventional methods of twentieth-century action painters. Repeatedly, the artist juxtaposes thick layers of slick pigment to divide the visual plane, nearly sculpting with the paint. Describing his expressionistic process ahead of his 2023 solo exhibition with Harper’s, Lawson explains:

The materials take on a life of their own. Painting directly with my hands, it would seem as if I had more intimate control over them, however, I constantly have to cooperate with deviations from my intentions. In this respect, I’m responding to the dictates of the media at least as much as, if not more than, when I’m asserting my will. It’s a long conversation between myself and every painting; I’m just trying to stay attuned to their physical properties—and find harmony with the force of gravity.

Among the works that comprise Mayday, Lawson continues his pursuit of gestural freedom: with these electric new paintings, Lawson explores the liberatory potential of color, shape, and form, calling for a careful study of the poetics of transcendent composition.

Throughout the exhibition, the color red slices across several canvases as if ringing the alarm of a mayday call. The urgent hue zips across the work, With Fever Comes Attention, where Lawson layers blazing sheaths of red paint amidst smoky black shadows. Lilac simmers between this interplay of red and black, as the floral hue greets ecstatic lime green and rustic burnt orange. Other times, like in Rough Trade, deep blues provide momentary relief, beckoning the viewer to slow down and linger within an abyss of melancholic saturation. The artist applies the paint with cathartic vigor in both works, striking a steady balance of dark and vibrant pigment. The resultant compositions are, thus, temperamental and introspective: it is this remarkable balance of frenetic hues and boisterous textures that unites Lawson’s recent series of immersive abstractions.

Jeremy Lawson (b. 1980, Warren, PA) received a BFA from Syracuse University in 2003, and an MFA from Hunter College in 2021. In 2022, Lawson was a recipient of the prestigious Rema Hort Mann Foundation Emerging Artist Grant. Most recently, his work has been exhibited at Harper’s, Los Angeles and East Hampton (2023 and 2022); KIAF, Seoul (2023); CFHILL, Stockholm (2023 and 2022); Carl Kostyál, Ibiza (2023); Felix Art Fair, Los Angeles (2023); Zona Maco, Mexico City (2023); Jack Shainman Gallery, New York (2022); Hauser & Wirth, New York (2021); and Kristen Lorello, New York (2019). In fall 2024, Lawson's work will be the subject of a solo exhibition at Carl Kostyál, London. Lawson currently lives and works in New York City.

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Detail: Jeremy Lawson, With Fever Comes Attention, 2024

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