Cameron Jamie

Name: Cameron Jamie
Start: 2019-08-06T19:00:00+02:00
End: 2019-08-06T20:00:00+02:00
Location: Galerie 5020

6 August 2019 / 7–8 pm CEST

Galerie 5020

Pearline, 2017, monotype, 81.2 × 59 cm, Courtesy Bernier-Eliades gallery, Athens, photo: Boris Kirpotin

Cameron Jamie is fascinated with everyday culture, whether backyard wrestling in Los Angeles, Hallowe’en in the suburbs of Detroit or the tradition of Krampus and Nikolaus in the Gastein Valley in the Austrian Alps. He investigates the dark side: barbarous, often originally pagan rituals, still present in specific traditions or everyday activities. Wrestling, Hallowe’en and Krampus are examples of three cultural traditions he has dealt with in films/videos: BB (2000), Spook House (2003) and Kranky Klaus (2003). As a rule, the films are not shown in the exhibition room; the artist prefers to present them in the cinema, accompanied by live music with the sludge metal band The Melvins.

For his sculptures and installations, on the other hand, he may work together with a traditional wood-carver (as for his exhibition in the Salzburger Kunstverein in 2004), or shape gigantic sculptures from clay. Small formats, such as drawings and artist’s books, also play an important role in his work. The Artist Talk will offer insights into some aspects of his diverse production.

Cameron Jamie, born in Los Angeles, CA (US), in 1969, lives and works in Paris. Jamie has built a body of work over a good 25 years using an enormous variety of media: It comprises wood sculptures, ceramics, drawings, prints, photographs, films, artist’s books, and musical productions. One of his central themes is identity as the existential foundation of the individual, which is generated by social and anti-social codes. Jamie’s view of marginalized realities and magically obscure rituals that embody the hidden side of our society is both analytical and immersive at the same time: Jamie himself is partly shaped by the subcultures that he transforms artistically. (see www.koelnischerkunstverein.de/ wp/cameron-jamie-bodies-faces-heads/)

Solo exhibitions
2020 Cameron Jamie, Gladstone Gallery, Brussels. 2019 Cameron Jamie, N I C C, Brussels. 2018 Cameron Jamie: Solo Show, Kamel Mennour, London und Paris. Monotypes, Kamel Mennour, Paris. 2017 Cameron Jamie, Bernier/Eliades, Athens. Cameron Jamie: Drawings and Monotypes, CAPRI, Düsseldorf (DE). Bodies, Faces, Heads, Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne (DE). Cameron Jamie: Domestic Arenas: Massage the History, BB, Kranky Klaus, Gladstone Gallery, New York, NY (US). 2015 Cameron Jamie, Gladstone Gallery, New York, NY. 2014 Cameron Jamie, Bernier/Eliades Gallery, Athens.

Group exhibitions
2019 The Sorcerer’s Burden: Contemporary Art and the Anthropological Turn, The Contemporary Austin, TX (US). Mask: In Present Day Art, Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau (CH). Abstract, Representational, and so forth, Gladstone Gallery, New York. May You Live in Interesting Times, 58. Biennale di Venezia, Venice (IT). Futomomo, CAC Brétigny, Brétigny-sur-Orge (FR). A Higher State of Consciousness, Galerie Éric Hussenot, Paris. My Head is a Haunted House, Sadie Coles HQ, London. à dimensions variables, FRAC Picardie, Amiens (FR). 2018 Mask, Kamel Mennour, London. Spectres, ou les perspectives menaçantes, ICI. Gallery, Paris. Backcovers: Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring, Museum im Bellpark, Kriens (CH). 2017 Voyage d’hiver, Palace of Versailles, Versailles (FR). Jeux, Rituels & Récréations, lille3000, Gare Saint Sauveur, Lille (FR). Point Quartz Flower of Kent, Villa Arson Nice, Nice (FR). EuroVisions: Contemporary Art from the Goldberg Collection, National Art School Gallery, Sydney (AU). The Absent Museum, Wiels, Brussels. Dizziness: Navigating the Unknown, Kunsthaus Graz, Graz (AT). Ruins in the Snow. High Art, Paris. 2016 Luster: Clay in Sculpture Today, Fundament Foundation, Park De Oude Warnade, Tilburg (NL). The Infinite Mix: Sound and Image in Contemporary Video, Hayward Gallery, London.

Portrait photo: Herve Baudat