Introspection and Identity: Art by Jaye Early
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Jaye Early’s practice revolves around introspection and identity, primarily taking the form of paintings and videos. The artist’s subject matter is deeply personal, and oscillates tonally between self-deprecating humour and deep-seated anxiety.
Many of Jaye’s painted works take the form of portraiture, though the images are highly abstracted. The portraits in question are friendly and candy-coloured yet somehow grotesque in their way, toeing an interesting line between inviting and off-putting. The juxtaposition is in keeping with Jaye’s technique of presenting touchy, anxiety-inducing subject matter in a way that seems almost childlike.
Portfolio images from Jaye's series, One day you will die. I'm betting on myself
Jaye’s video and performance work tends to be intensely focused on the body. The resulting works are sometimes humorous and sometimes disconcerting, often looking unflinchingly at a particular part of process of the body. These explorations are often combined with text in large, coloured block letters, announcing some simple phrase – in some cases, a fact about the artist’s life, and in other cases an assertion such as “nothing is real anymore.”