Jeff Chester
Jeff Chester, The Yellow Socks, 2023,oil on canvas on panel, 40 x 40 inches
Jeff Chester, The Multicoloured Mitten, 2023,oil on canvas on panel, 30 x 30 inches
Jeff Chester, The Red Mitten, 2023,oil on canvas on panel, 52 x 52 inches
Jeff Chester, Wave Too, 2023,oil on canvas on panel, 50 x 50 inches
Jeff Chester, Wave, 2023,oil on canvas on panel, 50 x 50 inches
Jeff Chester, The Purple Mitten, 2023,oil on canvas on panel, 30 x 30 inches
Jeff Chester, The Brown Mitten, 2023,oil on canvas on panel, 30 x 30 inches
Jeff Chester, Thirty-Five, 2020, Oil and acrylic on canvas on panel, 18 x 18 inches
Jeff Chester, Eighteen, 2018, Oil, alkyd resin and acrylic on polyester canvas over wood panel, 18 x 18 inches (each)
Jeff Chester, Blair, 2020, Oil and acrylic on canvas on panel, 14 x 20 inches
Jeff Chester, Twenty-two, 2018, Oil, alkyd resin and acrylic on polyester canvas over wood panel, 12 x 12 inches (each)
Jeff Chester, Twenty-one, 2018, Oil, alkyd resin and acrylic on polyester canvas over wood panel, 30 x 40 inches (each)
Jeff Chester, The Pink Toed Brown Socks, 2023,oil on canvas on four panels, 60 x 60 inches
Jeff Chester, Kick Too!, 2023,oil on canvas on panel, 50 x 50 inches
Jeff Chester, A Bigger Wave, 2023,oil on canvas on two panels, 50 x 100 inches
Jeff Chester, Kick!, 2023,oil on canvas on panel, 50 x 50 inches
Jeff Chester’s works are a combination of colour fields and faces. The Canadian born painter places areas of pure color in contrast with flattened, stylized human figures.
The colored panels, in one sense, follow on with the modernist traditions of the 1960s. ”What you see is what you see” as Frank Stella put it. They allow the viewer to enjoy color in its purest form. However, the juxtaposition of these panels with the figure also opens a new dialogue, recontextualizing the monochromes from objects into symbols. What is created is a tension between the spiritual and the physical, the image and the object.
Themes of existential anxiety, nothingness, death and identity are present in the paintings. The figure is an archetypal human. Not a portrait of someone in particular, but intended to be more like a mirror in which the viewers can gaze into themselves.
The works avoid any overt painterly gestures. They are controlled and distinctly anti-bravado. The composition is restrained and the surface is smooth, glossy and carefully crafted.
Education
2002
Bachelor of Education, Junior/Senior High School Art and Biology. Nipissing University. North Bay, Ontario.
2001
Bachelor of Arts, Fine Art. University of Guelph. Guelph, Ontario.
Bachelor of Science, Biological Science. University of Guelph. Guelph, Ontario.
Solo Exhibitions
2018
Parlour. Winnipeg, Manitoba
2017
Winnipeg Art Gallery Shop. Winnipeg, Manitoba
2016
Fools and Horses. Winnipeg, Manitoba
2014
Pavilion Gallery Museum. Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Solo Exhibitions
2021
KICKSTART: A Group Show, Voltz Clarke Gallery, New York, NY.
2020
Market Art + Design Art Fair, Hamptons, NY
Start Somewhere, Voltz Clarke Gallery X Penske Projects, New York, NY
Spectrum: Visions 2020, Carriage Barn Art Center, New Canaan, CT
2019
Disparity, Voltz Clarke Gallery, New York, NY
2018
Ian Tan Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia
AAF London Battersea with Decorazon Gallery, London, UK
MHC Gallery 20 th Anniversary Exhibition, Winnipeg, Manitoba
AAF New York Fall with Decorazon Gallery, New York, NY
Reveal Art Fair with Decorazon Gallery, Saratoga Springs, NY
MHC Gallery, Winnipeg, Manitoba
2017
Online Bombay Sapphire Artisan Series
AAF UK with Decorazon Gallery, Battersea London, UK
AAF Stockholm with Decorazon Gallery, Stockholm SE
AAF NYC with Decorazon Gallery, NY, NY
Ian Tan Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia
2016
Elliot Fouts Gallery, Sacramento, California
Ian Tan Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia
Ian Tan Projects, Tsawwassen, British Columbia
Winnipeg Art Gallery, Gallery Ball Auction. Winnipeg, Manitoba
2015
Ian Tan Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia
2014
Winnipeg Art Gallery, Gallery Ball Auction. Winnipeg, Manitoba
2013
Terrace in the Park. Pavilion Gallery Museum. Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Special Projects
2018
Paint scheme for tail art on 435 Sqn Hercules
Paint scheme design for the Royal Canadian Air Force CF18 Demonstration Jet