Jay Isaac

Jay Isaac (born 1975) is a Canadian artist based in Toronto who shows his work internationally. He is known primarily for his painting, but has experimented as a performance artist and musician.[1] He was also founder, editor, publisher, and designer of Hunter and Cook magazine.[2]

Jay Isaac
Born1975 (age 45–46)
Canada
Known forPainting, drawing, collage, sculpture

Early life and education

Isaac was born in New Brunswick. He attended Cardiff School of Art and Design in Wales in 1996 and graduated from the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in 1997.

Career

Isaac's 2005 show at the CUE Art Foundation explored issues of class and taste while depicting the lifestyle of the modern artist. Curator Xandra Eden described his work as "cut with a bit of surreal comedy".[3]

In 2006, while painting the New Brunswick landscape, he began to move away from painting objects and to experiment with a more abstract approach.[4]

Isaac co-founded the magazine Hunter & Cook in 2008 which was published until 2011.[5]

In 2009 Isaac contributed a giant ice sculpture to the Massive Uprising exhibit at the Art Gallery of Ontario.[6] His 2010 exhibit The Zone of No Ideas presented twelve paintings, all displaying an abstract approach and enlarged scale.[4]

In 2012 Isaac and Lorenz Peter created a number of musical tracks under the name Bay of Creatures.

He created an Instagram account in 2013 called "@nationalgalleryofcanada" through which he posted images of Canadian art. After the official National Gallery of Canada filed a complaint to Instagram in 2016, the account was removed.[5]

In 2014's exhibition, The Sponges, the works are process-based and surreal, and relate to Yves Klein's use of sponges as a painting tool and his interest in "nothingness" and aesthetic "badness". Isaac made unusual use of sand and chalk within the paint.[7] Reviewer Brad Phillips (artist) pointed out the change from Isaac's more representational style in his earlier Vancouver exhibition, writing "Isaac has become very adept at making work that both entices and upsets the viewer."[8]

Selected exhibits

Group

Solo
  • Mercer Union, 2002
  • CUE art foundation, 2005
  • Paul Petro Contemporary Art, 2010
  • Monte Clark Gallery, 2012 and 2014

Collections

Selected publications
  • Off the Grid, Abstract Painting in New Brunswick, 2014, Beaverbrook Art Gallery
  • Fantasy Art Now, 2014, ed. Jay Isaac & Sebastian Frye, Swimmer's Group, ISBN 978-0-9938723-3-4
  • 60 Painters, 2012
  • Triumphant Carrot: The Persistence of Still Life, 2010, Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver
  • Hunter and Cook, 2008-2011, periodical, issues #01-10, Jay Isaac and Tony Romano
  • Carte Blanche, Vol. 2: Painting, 2008, Magenta Foundation
  • Jay Isaac, 2005, Cue Foundation, NY
  • Officina America, 2002, Museum of Modern Art, Bologna, Italy
  • Selling Out and Buying In, 2002, BizArt, Shanghai
  • Untitled from The Sponges, 2014
  • Installation view of The Sponges, 2014
  • Untitled from The Sponges, 2014,
  • Untitled from Second Eye, 2012,

References
  1. "The New Old Abstraction: Contemporary Canadian painters look back to earlier examples - Canadian Art" Archived 2015-03-24 at the Wayback Machine.
  2. Cootauco, Maria (29 July 2011). "Q&A: Toronto artist Jay Isaac on the state of art in the city".
  3. Jay Isaac, 2005, Cue Art Foundation, 2013.069
  4. "Jay Isaac: Think Tanked", Adam Lauder Canadian Art, April 22, 2010
  5. "National Gallery shuts down artist’s Instagram". Toronto Star, Murray Whyte, Dec. 4, 2016
  6. "Not Long AGO, a Party". Torontoist, April 6, 2009 By Sarah Nicole Prickett
  7. "Jay Isaac’s “The Sponges”". Monte Cristo magazine.
  8. "Jolie Laide (Back)". ArtSlant, May 2014, Brad Phillips
  9. "2014-149 Untitled Jay Isaac » WAG".
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