“I use a lot of fabric. I use materials that are sourced from the arts district in downtown Los Angeles, or friends give me old clothing. I’ve also been using a lot of imagery, from old Kodachrome slides that my in-laws actually gave us. I use those images to create nostalgic feelings, then, I print them on canvas and sew all the fabrics together to make a quilt. From there that’s where I start painting. The work is a play on nostalgic intention. I am constantly trying to figure out a way to allow my personal story to show in the work. I’m biracial so I feel like adding different types of fabric and sewing them together is me stitching myself together in a way.” —— Jonni Cheatwood
Lovingly referred to as ‘scumbags’i, Cheatwood’s large-scale abstract paintings are an organic collaboration between materials ranging from canvas, denim, serape rugs, bedsheets, to poetry and paint. The graffiti-like scribbles and erasures, smears of colour and densely patterned fabric unfold before your very eyes as Cheatwood engages in a game of balance between structure and negative space. Highlighting the importance of his intuitive process, where he bounces between several works at once, Cheatwood creates canvases whose very life histories are embodied and displayed on their surface, interacting with the viewer with complete honesty.
The current work, She Has the Teeth of the Person She Seems Like, explores the tactility of human experience. The checkered pattern, the grid and the stripes act as trigger points for memory, invoking a deep nostalgia and bringing to conversation viewers’ own associations with the prints. Looping lines and splotches of colour convey a staccato energy, alluding also to the hazy patchwork nature of experience itself. As the composition unfolds, Cheatwood meditates upon the dynamic relationship between colour, texture, space, and time, conjuring a unique assemblage of both chance and deliberation.
Born 1986 in California, Brazilian-American artist Jonni Cheatwood lives and works in Los Angeles. He has held many solo exhibitions, including his 2018 show in Hong Kong at Over the Influence. Cheatwood is represented by BEERS London, Banditto Art, Tuscany, and Over the Influence, Hong Kong.
Installation View: The current work at Hong Kong, Over the Influence, Jonni Cheatwood: "Dressed up for the Letdown", 2 November - 8 December 2018
i Aurora Garrison, ‘Jonni Cheatwood’s Expressionist Mark’, Saatchi Art, 16 July 2018, online
Provenance
Over the Influence, Hong Kong Acquired from the above by the present owner
Exhibited
Hong Kong, Over the Influence, Jonni Cheatwood: "Dressed up for the Letdown", 2 November - 8 December 2018
signed, dated and inscribed 'Jonni 2018 L.A.' on the reverse oil, oilstick, acrylic, enamel, printed canvas, string and fabric collage on canvas 183 x 153 cm. (72 x 60 1/4 in.) Executed in 2018.