(Adapted from an article in American Art Collector, May 2008)

 Exploring different states of being through the use of traditional motifs is the driving force behind Jordan Wolfson’s current work.

“I’ve always been interested in different ways of coming at a subject matter”, says Wolfson. “Sometimes, I might be interested in drawing more closely realized forms, while other times, I might be after a more open-ended investigation of the sense of space or form. After my last show [in 2005], I started to think about how the work played together in the studio, and I became interested in trying to create something like that in a gallery space.”

Whether it is flowers in a vase, a still life of objects, or a mundane interior scene, Wolfson endeavors to have these new paintings touch upon the experience of being and the effect these situations may invoke within the viewer.

“I guess there is a way I sense different ways of being in the world that occur simultaneously and sometimes the awareness is more outward and sometimes it’s more inward,” says Wolfson. “It’s like tuning a dial, really, with our attention, but these different ways of being are always happening at the same time whether we’re aware of them or not. I’m interested in somehow creating a visual situation that presents those different ways of being simultaneously.”

Wolfson sees his work as occurring in relation to presence – the presence in a room, in between things, in open space or light. His recent paintings are a continuation and extension of this investigation.

“I am interested in how this sense of presence shifts and adjusts as our experience of the world changes, in a daily way, from hour to hour and moment to moment,” writes Wolfson. “It is an ontological inquiry within a dialectic of the objective and subjective.” He continues, “Additionally, there is the parallel and interrelated problem of the work achieving and embodying its own presence, not merely as a reflection but as an extension, adding to the fabric of the world.”

Along with the more conceptual aspects of the work, Wolfson clearly has a deep belief in the aesthetic and formal aspects of making a painting as well.

“A painting is not simply an expression of an idea but more fundamentally it is a sensory experience, so there needs to be strong formal expression, otherwise it won’t keep me looking,” says Wolfson. “And without continued looking, how can I sense presence?”