Jeff Jackson

Jeff Jackson’s fascinating re-creations of the female body unfold across the page in languid repose. The hallmark of his work is its composition, which he achieves by layering graphite drawings, one upon the other, and adding subtle color to them using glazes, colored pencils, and other mixed media. The figures themselves are crafted with a mind to academic realism and then, through his layering technique, are sculpted onto the canvas in incongruous yet elegant poses. In their unfamiliar positions, light and shadow play across the surfaces of these bodies, creating new configurations of figure and line. What results is an assemblage of female bodies, bound together in a graceful dance.

Born and raised in Texas, Jackson attributes his compositional achievements to a succession of art-school accidents that he now deliberately and consciously pursues. Regardless of their unassuming beginnings, his simultaneous efforts to present the female figure both realistically and abstractly result in a mesmerizing exploration of the human form.