Press Release - "Describing Sirius" by JP McNicholas
JP McNicholas
”Port Costa / Thinking about Stanley Cowell / Thinking about Andrew Hill”
Soft pastel, acrylic on wood panel
22 x 35 inches
Walnut Frame
2022
info@part2gallery.com
pt.2 Gallery
Describing Sirius
A solo exhibition by
JP McNicholas
Opening Reception
Saturday, February 12th
Appointment Only 11 - 5pm
Public Opening Reception 6-9 pm
Showing Through March 4th, 2022
Schedule Private Viewing
pt. 2 Gallery is pleased to present Describing Sirius, a solo exhibition on new paintings by Oakland-based artist JP McNicholas. In McNicholas’ second solo exhibition with the gallery, he expands a body of instinct driven work through an allegorical series of paintings that mirror his own life. In a newly realized palette he investigates the nature of temporary, ephemeral and permanent relationships in his life.
On the flat, two dimensional planes of JP McNicholas’ paintings, patterns begin to emerge. A circular narrative composed of raw and immediate gesture reveals a world caught in between fiction and reality - where recurring dreams, allusions to the painter’s own life, and imagination intersect. Across his paintings, a similar figure takes center stage, one in perpetual motion, a look of determination visible just over their shoulder. Allegorical to the artist himself, this figure navigates the complexities of relationships, examining the confusing moments that follows as people move in and out of life. Relationships may change, and they may falter, but does that signal finality?
JP McNicholas
”View Part for Passing Comet”
Soft pastel, acrylic, and charcoal on wood panel
17 x 17 inches
Walnut Frame
2022
info@part2gallery.com
Across McNicholas’ new paintings, a rich array of bold colors and embedded text emerge. Following an intensive study of monochromatic work, the paintings in Describing Sirius expand the artist’s palette of blue tones, and augment them with rich magnets, pinks, greens and grays. This emboldened tonality situates the subject in a rich world of exploration and possibility. Text is embedded in the landscape across multiple new paintings, at times legible with terms such as “feeling,” “embarrassing” and “exhaust” - at other times less evident. Put together at times, these unspoken words make up mantras that bring peace when repeated and followed.
Alpha Canis Majoris, known as Sirius, shines as the brightest star in the night sky, 25.4 times more luminous than our sun. Like countless explorers and storytellers before McNicholas, it has served as a beacon of hope and resource for guidance. To McNicholas, Sirius’ power resides not only in its luminance, but in its consistency, the perennial nature of its illumination fixates it as a constant in his life, a rock amongst a steadily changing sea. To observe Sirius throughout his life serves as a reminder of longevity for McNicholas. While relationships may take a turn or falter, that change doesn’t signal finality.
The subjects in McNicholas’ paintings seek to make peace with the world around them. Moving across flat, yet paradoxically fractured landscapes, they regain agency amongst forces out of their control. In constant motion, they seek peace against a backdrop of chaos and change. b. 10/3/90. JP McNicholas is an Oakland based multidisciplinary artist, focusing primarily on drawing and painting, with an educational background in functional ceramics and printmaking. Work also includes zine making and other printed matter. His work has been primarily exhibited in the Bay Area.