THE LIGHT TAKES US
Justin Teisl
solo exhibition at
Mercury 20 Gallery
475 25th St. Oakland, CA 94612
MAY 5 - JUNE 10, 2023

Gallery hours: 12-5pm Fridays and Saturdays and by appointment

Opening Reception and artist talk: Saturday May 6, 4-6pm

First Friday Art Murmur:
May 5, 5-9pm
June 2, 5-9pm

In this collection produced over the last two years, Justin Teisl has infused his mixed media landscape paintings with an abundance of light. After a dark 2020, during which time Teisl produced a black and white series, he returned to his colorful paintings and added some rays of sunlight to the compositions. This was a natural addition to his landscapes; for years he’s been focused on the light sky seen through gaps in trees, the detailed shapes created by that negative space, and the act of looking equally at an image’s positive and negative space. The new element of sunlight sets his paintings in a more specific setting, that golden hour when the sun is closing in on the horizon and providing dramatic and intense yet peaceful bright light. Still, there’s a subtle element of anxiety in Justin’s work; in most of these pieces the image is doubled, with the second image being offset from the first, creating a feeling of vibration, movement when there should be still, the concern about, or possibility of, imminent destruction.

Teisl’s paintings are made with layers of paint separated by many layers of clear epoxy resin. At up to three centimeters thick, these paintings have a physicality and subtle parallax effect that is best experienced in person. The images are all hand painted; in the case of the rays of light, each line is rendered with carefully thinned acrylic paint applied with a refillable marker against a straightedge. Solid shapes that define light between branches and leaves are meticulously rendered with very small paint brushes and a patient, steady hand. All very labor intensive and deliberate, Teisl’s work speaks to a desire for control in a world that’s unpredictable and chaotic.