“All the ideas just come to me. They’re like downloads. They’re like someone pouring milk into a glass and it takes a form. I just get the idea and I try not to judge it. […] I’ve had my most success when I just surrender to this intuition and try to capture the purity of the intuitive idea.”
— Jordan Wolfson
Born in New York in the 1980s, Jordan Wolfson’s work generates a nuanced commentary on the contemporary world. He filters his compositions through the jarring framework of the modern technological and commercial zeitgeist, approaching his often controversial themes through vibrant designs that focus on animated and engaging protagonists. Works like Untitled from 2014 are a consequence of culture; a projection of humanity’s internal desires twisted into fictious, often politically charged, narratives.
Locating his work within a post-Warholian landscape, the language of commercial advertising and Americana permeates Wolfson’s canvases, although the artist seems more interested in the mechanics of Western consumption than the products themselves. Deploying collage-like approaches to compositional design, his works twists the commercial world upon itself to serve as a mirror which draws out the most disturbing aspects of consumerism. In the present untitled work, the animated protagonist seemingly breaks through the surface of the canvas, rupturing any sense of critical distance that we might try to establish here. Instead, Wolfson determinedly situates his work in the present moment, his practice generating provocative and urgent discussions around technology, consumption, and cultural production. Drawing compelling connections with the visual and narrative qualities of film and gaming, Wolfson’s futuristic, animated character here complicates distinctions between high and low culture, translating these contemporary references into his own, distinct aesthetic vocabulary.