Johansson Projects presents In Concert, an exhibition of new work by Rachel Kaye and Jay Nelson. Exploring an instinctive synthesis of their individual practices, the exhibition features a series of paintings made in dialogue between the artist couple. Kaye and Nelson have exhibited numerous times together in group formats, but remarkably this is their first artistic collaboration.

Across the Bay from the Telegraph Avenue gallery, Rachel Kaye and Jay Nelson live in the outer reaches of the San Francisco surfing community, where their personal and artistic lives are inseparably intertwined. Developed in the context of living and working side by side in a hand-built studio attached to their house, the merging of art and life provide the departure point for understanding their work.

Kaye’s paintings and drawings are known for their panache; their intense patterns, swirling lines and graphic layering convey a sense of freedom and joy. Nelson, an accomplished craftsman of treehouses and mobile dwellings, makes paintings that mine his subconscious and use the canvas to explore light and space. Although their styles are uniquely different in texture, brushwork, and content, both artists construct paintings through gesture, color and drawing-based methods.

Hung on custom-built lattice, platforms and other housing structures, Kaye’s and Nelson’s new work allows them to engage in a physical thinking process as well as reflect on their surroundings, blurring the boundary between art and life.

PRESS