2014 Catalogue Archive

LA-based Jesse Mockrin’s exquisitely painted works bring old master figure painting into the present. In Harvest Moon, the poufy sleeve and elongated fingers are from another era, but the cropped figure and black background are utterly contemporary. The strange gesture of fingers stroking a dead bird hovers in a realm of possible meanings, from our literal fascination with death to a symbolic scene about understanding one’s mortality. Mockrin received her MFA from UCSD in 2011. Her work has been exhibited at a number of galleries in the US.