Personal Narrative: An Art Portfolio by Jaye Early
Jaye Early works in a range of media, including painting, mixed media and performance. The artist takes an autobiographical approach to art-making, infusing both his video pieces and his paintings with an introspective, personal narrative.
I like the way that Jaye uses color throughout his art practice – his paintings, and even his performances to some extent are brightly colored. In paintings, this manifests as numerous layers of saturated pigment interacting across a canvas. While some of Jaye’s previous paintings have tended toward heavily textured, painterly abstraction, a lot of his recent works are hard-edged and geometric, sometimes with neon-bright tape adhered directly to the finished work.
Jaye’s performances and recordings are almost confrontational in the way they’re shot, with the artist facing the camera, and by extension, the viewer, head on, usually quite close. They mimic the format of a personal video log of the sort seen in the early days of Youtube – a type of diary that seems to exist in both public and private space simultaneously.
