In XX2, gestural strokes of white and black cover a chaotic network of parallel lines and spirals, obscuring background layers of scrawled lines, text, and barely perceivable imagery. The mechanical, digital, and expressive lines merge in Jason Matthew Lee’s densely packed painting, and the human element in his work is masked by the overload of visual information created by his intense layering. Lee’s interest in hackers, encryption, and unauthorized access to information in recent exhibitions makes the radical obstruction of imagery in XX2 read as a form of artistic encryption.
Jason Matthew Lee
XX2
2015
layered direct to substrate print on primed canvas
79 x 60 x 1 1/4 inches