JONATHAN QUINN

Objects, Painting and Photography

Why Photography:
Theconventional practice of photography —where a shutter opens and light and shadow are fixed— memorializes the past. Beyond representation, a photograph is a record of a time and place that occurred in a mediated instant defined by the camera-apparatus --imprints that mimic what we think of as discreet moments.
As we explore and discover with a camera we anticipate
a future of a past yet to be.

Why Painting:
Gazing meditatively at a body of water can be a transformative experience. The speed at which water appears on the back of the retina is melded into an amalgam of consciousness as we struggle to interpret time and space through the dapple of light, water, wind and gravity. A painting can reflect how we think we see. What happens between one metaphorical fold of water as it overlap onto another is contingent on what we mean by fold —a wave— whose movement we often ascribe agency. The waves are dancing.
As I mush, splatter, wipe and stroke paint onto a surface I think of the seemingly limitless abyss of mid-ocean. Does it feel like an instant of wet? There are no objects only fluid events.

Why Objects:
By using illustrative troupes –faux-scientific, research-like objects– I’m attempting to explore issues of how we understand, organize and interpret the world around us. I think of them as thought experiments that hopefully reveal something about cognition and its interplay with shared interpretations.
What is the nature of subjective experience and an interplay with a conduit?
Jonathan Quinn has been lurking around the New York art world for forty years dipping in with an occasional group show. His last one-person show was in 2017 at Townley Arts in Laguna Beach. He was part of the Club 57 Show at MoMA in 2017-18. Go to his website for more information. quinnpicture.com