| Paul Petro Contemporary Art is pleased to present new paintings by Jay Isaac and a selection of drawings from 2003-2005 by Stephen Andrews.
Sunchoke examines the viability of artistic production during current environmental degradation due to capitalism. The paintings are equal parts dystopian and utopian and describe a post-capitalist reality where human relationships to nature are reimagined. Like the art historical precedents of Pointillism and Neo-Impressionism which sought to represent a utopian world after capitalism was made obsolete, the narratives in Sunchoke imagine a post-ecocide world where nature once again becomes autonomous and its relationship to humans exists outside of a transactional framework. –Jay Isaac, 2025
“Like everyone, I have been both fascinated and horrified by the news coverage of the war in Iraq. In early 2003, I started searching the internet for photographic evidence of the war that was not being reported in the mainstream press. Web-based news sites offered a rather different picture. Photos of ‘collateral damage’ captured the obscenity of war in all its pornographic detail. In the wake of Abu Ghraib, these images are now ubiquitous. Like all pornographic and violent pictures, they tap into something instinctual, eliciting some gesture in response.” –Stephen Andrews, 2004, Stephen Andrews, Cue Art Foundation, NYC |
