Jake Aikman

Listings(s)

Sirens

Jake Aikman at Salon 91

Salon 91 in association with SMAC Gallery presents Jake Aikman’s  ‘Sirens’, an exhibition of paintings which takes as its subject the classical myth of the beautiful half human half bird-like creatures who reputedly lured sailors to their death through their song. Curated by Andrew Lamprecht, the show explores this myth and the stories around it, reconfiguring the historical theme of the siren as muse and inspiration in a contemporary context.

01 December 2009 - 14 January 2010

Two fringe exhibitions for 53rd Venice Biennale

Kay Hassan, Jake Aikman, Wayne Barker and Johann Louw at Venice Biennale

Kay Hassan, Johann Louw and Wayne Barker have been invited to participate in an exhibition entitled ‘I Linguaggi del Mondo: Languages of the World’ curated by Vincenzo Sanfo, to coincide with the 53rd Venice Biennale. The exhibition will be hosted at the prestigious Palazzo Querini Stampalia in Venice, one of the city’s oldest museums located on Campo Santa Maria Formosa in close proximity to the Gallerie dell’Accademia and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection.

Also to be hosted during the 53rd Venice Biennale is the exhibition ‘L’Anima dell’ Acqua – Contemporary Art’.  South African Jake Aikman has been selected to participate in this group exhibition which will be on show at the Ca' d'Oro (Palazzo Santa Sofia), a landmark 14th century Gothic palace on the Grand Canal.

06 June 2009 - 22 November 2009

'Proximity'

Jake Aikman at SMAC Art Gallery Cape Town

The title of Jake Aikman’s third solo exhibition; Proximity is as ambiguous and mysterious as his atmospheric, meditative paintings. On one level, the artist deals with people’s proximity and connection to nature, whilst emphasizing the insignificance and vulnerability of the individual in relation to the overwhelming power and magnitude of our natural environment; forest, desert or ocean. Vulnerability, emptiness – vast open spaces – the subjects contained in or those standing in close Proximity to Aikman’s paintings are forced to reconsider and contemplate the ultimate solitude of their existence. Intensely conscious of modern-day environmental concerns, a sense of impending danger pervades. Aikman creates tension around the moment he has chosen to capture, the recent, the imminent, the immediate, as well as a tangible Proximity to that which lies beneath, beyond and hidden from view. Despite their monumentality and omniscience, the works are intimate, poetic and enticing as the viewer becomes part of the bigger picture. The relativity of perception and distance serves as a metaphor – the closer one gets to the object (or the truth), the more inaccessible or distant it becomes.

13 October 2011 - 30 November 2011

‘Confini Velati’

Jake Aikman at Centro Luigo di Sarro

‘Confini Velati’ or ‘Veiled Boundaries’ continues where ‘At the Quiet Limit’ left off. Aikman delves deeper into basic existential questions posed by an explorative journey into the unfamiliar and focuses more specifically on the impenetrable physical boundaries, as well as the foreboding psychological apprehension which surrounds a confrontation with the unknown. This theme is ever-present in Aikman’s work and is compared to similar quests portrayed in iconic cinematic classics such as ‘Aguirre, The Wrath of God’ (1972) by Werner Herzog and Francis Ford Coppola’s ‘Apocalypse Now’ (1979). Aikman also acknowledges the influence of contemporary artists such as Gerard Richter and Peter Doig and significantly, one of Aikman’s first formative paintings was titled ‘Canoe Sea (Doig vs Richter)’ (2008), highlighting an early interest in merging conceptual ideas with atmospheric and sensory images that seduce and challenge the viewer.

The imagery in Aikman’s paintings stems from personal journeys to remote locales including Nicaragua, Indonesia and various trips around Southern Africa. The current body of work features a large ominous painting titled, ‘The Island’ (2014), where a relatively harmless outcropping of land is surrounded by a tangible aura of Hitchcockian suspense and the anxiety of the viewer is projected onto the work whilst the artist reveals as little as possible. This element of artistic restraint is typical of Aikman’s land and seascapes, which evoke mystery and uncertainty, despite their tranquil and serene ‘veil’. The total absence or subtle hints of human presence is intentional and troubles the viewer as both the physical landscape of thick impermeable bush and forests and the elusiveness of a distant light or faint glimmer from a tent, taunt us to believe that there is someone or something out there, but they are unreachable. In this sense Aikman is clearly expanding his metaphor to everyday life and the human condition.

'This enigmatic new body of work is both silently overwhelming and alarming in its quiescence. Here the daunting elements of nature seem to remind us of a larger world around us and our fear and concerns of an absolute separation from ourselves, as we hunger to understand, desire to feel safe and connect as part of a greater whole surrounding us, these paintings serve to beautifully address our deepest existential concepts of isolation.' Julia Teale, 2014

05 June 2014 - 20 June 2014

'Viewing room 1, 2, 3'

Ed Young, Uwe Wittwer, Jake Aikman, Kate Gottgens, Abrie Fourie, Peter Eastman, Simon Stone, Willem Boshoff, Sandile Zulu and Georgina Gratrix at SMAC ART GALLERY CAPE TOWN

SMAC Art Gallery | Cape Town presents a trilogy of viewing room showings curated around the themes of Typography, Architecture and Landscape.

Viewing room 1 | Typography | 15.07.14 – 02.08.14
- Willem Boshoff
- Georgina Gratrix
- Simon Stone
- Ed Young

Viewing room 2 | Architecture | 05.08.14 – 23.08.14
- Abrie Fourie
- Kate Gottgens
- Helen A Pritchard
- Sandile Zulu

Viewing room 3 | Landscape | 26.08.14 – 13.09.14
- Jake Aikman
- Ruann Coleman
- Peter Eastman
- Uwe Wittwer

15 July 2014 - 13 September 2014

'At the Quiet Limit'

Jake Aikman at SMAC ART GALLERY STELLENBOSCH

SMAC Art Gallery presents 'At the Quiet Limit', a solo exhibition of new works by Jake Aikman.  'At the Quiet Limit' is comprised of Aikman's well-known renditions of nature and signature seascapes, whilst introducing new veins, partly inspired by his recent trips to Central America. This is Aikman's third exhibition with the gallery, and is accompanied by a catalogue of selected works.

The exhibition and the catalogue takes the form of an unchartered artistic journey, reminiscent of Conrad, Coppola and Herzog, as Aikman moves gradually deeper into his subject, unveiling both stylistic and conceptual complexity. Eerie and silent, a post-apocalyptic world is scarcely inhabited. Isolated, solitary figures and traces of human presence are placed in context before the overwhelming magnitude of nature. Remote coastlines, impenetrable forests, volcanic plumes and darkly ominous waters suggest a violent reckoning between humans and nature. Besides the unequivocal environmental message underpinning the work, Aikman delves deeper, posing inevitable existential questions. We are aware as the audience that the context of these captured spaces is not completely ‘real.’ Although each painting is titled as a specific geographical location (as a grid coordinate), the audience slowly becomes aware that they are standing in front of a suspended context, a scene which is painted by an artist on his own investigative quest.

 

Like a powerful tidal cycle, the audience is drawn in and out of the enigmatic images, their vastness providing no explicit narrative. Aikman simultaneously creates tension and anticipation about what is about to happen or may already have taken place. The viewer is placed at the ‘quiet limit,’ and it is there in the absence of a narrative that Aikman’s paintings can be both silently overwhelming and alarming in their quiescence.

18 July 2013 - 31 August 2013