Jonathan Lisenby: Excerpt From “I Was Raised In A Theme Park” 

I am building a taxonomy of modern depictions of spirituality and magic to create a visual language to describe my perfect place of escape and meditation.  The primary subjects of my work are doors and portals, fetish objects and shrines, and representations of water and electricity.  I borrow from contemporary escapist media, like sci-fi movies, comic books, and fantasy novels, which use these objects to depict power and the human involvement in the supernatural. 

More important to me than creating a perfect illusionistic space is forming a fictitious space that quickly shifts between illusory and the concretely material.  I think of these spaces as sets or “play” pieces that forcibly exercise the viewer’s ability to make that perceptual shift.  A suspension of disbelief is necessary to enter into the four-dimensional world my two-dimensional works imply.

My work showcases the psychological and visual interaction of recognizable objects and abstract mark.  These interactions oscillate between awkward and intuitive, often deconstructing mid-action to highlight the component structure of the mark.  I want to fragment the viewer’s interface, including the point-of-entry, into the narrative of each piece.  Marks become particulate, mimicking the piecemeal structure of language.  As letters make up words and words sentences, so marks accumulate to make figures.

Education

2007 - BFA in Painting, Washington University in St. Louis

Solo Exhibitions

2010 – Agent Of Mistake, Murfreesboro Center For The Arts, Murfreesboro, TN, Curator: Dan Carr

2008 - People Empyrean, Open Lot Saint Louis, St. Louis, MO

2008 – Painting The Scene, Art Lofts, St. Louis, MO

2007 - Wrestling With The Black Box, Des Lee Gallery, St. Louis, MO

Group Exhibitions

2009 – Translation, Open Lot Nashville, Nashville, TN

2009 – Red Carpet, Open Lot Nashville, Nashville, TN

2009 – Art In Open Spaces: Emerging Artists, Zeitgeist Gallery, Nashville, TN, Curator: Lain York

2009 - Shrine/Installation, Foundry Art Center, St. Charles, MO, Curator: Alex Elmestad

2007 - We’ll Talk More Later, Open Lot Saint Louis, St. Louis, MO

Exhibitions Curated

2010 – Concrete Comedy, Open Lot Nashville, Nashville, TN

2010 – Session 4, Open Lot Nashville, Nashville, TN

2010 – Diet Blood: Meditations On Recent Paintings By Donny Smutz, Open Lot Nashville, Nashville, TN, with Chris Murray

2010 – ART.EDU 2010, Open Lot Nashville, Nashville, TN

2009 – Red Carpet, Open Lot Nashville, Nashville, TN, with Skye Gilkerson

2009 – ART.EDU 2009, Open Lot Nashville, Nashville, TN

2008 – Adam Cruces: El Caballero De La Noche, Open Lot St. Louis, St. Louis, MO

2008 – An Associates Degree In Science, Open Lot St. Louis, St. Louis, MO

2008 – Gale Davis: People Will Know What Kind Of People You Are, Open Lot St. Louis, St. Louis, MO

2008 – Contemporary Furniture In Its Natural Habitat, Open Lot St. Louis, St. Louis, MO

2006 - Artworks In Residence Project, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO