Fergus McCaffrey, New York is proud to present a new body of paintings and sculptures by Jack Early in his largest solo exhibition to date, on view from February 18 to April 9, 2016.
Jack Early was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1962, and his aesthetic roots in the South represent a distinct and contrasting perspective within the generation of artists who emerged in the early 1990s and addressed race and gender politics, gay rights, and AIDS, while critiquing the authority of cultural institutions.
Some of Early’s ideas on these matters were touched upon early in his career with his then partner, Rob Pruitt, in their short-lived Pruitt-Early collaboration. Their art was upbeat, inclusive, tongue in cheek, and coyly provocative; it stood in contrast to others of that generation who adopted different means to address the issues of their time. Early’s current work, while maintaining some of the spirit of that period, is focused more directly on his own storytelling, revealing a candid openness and evident joy and pathos in the work. Early has an eye for icons, both old and new.
