"Hug Dreams" by Jaqueline Cedar

Jaqueline Cedar is a New York City based artist, curator and roving gallery Director of Good_Naked.

Jaqueline Cedar was born in Los Angeles, CA and currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. In 2009 she received an MFA in painting from Columbia University. Recent exhibitions include solo shows at Steven Zevitas Gallery, Boston (2016) and 106 Green Gallery, Brooklyn (2014). She has also been included in exhibitions at Lesley Heller Workspace (2016), BAM (2015), DUTTON Gallery (2015), and Brian Morris Gallery (2015). Press includes Huffington Post, New American Paintings, and The Boston Globe.

STATEMENT
My paintings depict life-size figures interacting amidst abstract fields of shape and color. Unsure of their surroundings, these figures make rote attempts to engage one another both physically and psychologically as their gestures are echoed and amplified by their environment. They have strong inclinations toward action yet limited mobility. They find themselves absorbed by their own thoughts and yet compelled to engage with their surroundings. They are filled with a sense of impending doom and still uncertain of their purpose. As these figures acknowledge the absurdity of their circumstances they respond distinctly with behaviors that reflect their will and needs. Some are distracted by the task at hand. Some ask questions and observe closely. Some assess the current conditions and look for a way out.

The paintings address such issues as self-awareness, control, and immobility, staging a potential but arrested movement toward knowledge or engagement. By arranging figures as armatures for hanging line and color, my paintings construct scenarios in which subjects behave both as backdrops and participants, observers and actors. Adjacent structures of shape and value at once form and collapse, advancing an overall sensation of motion, depth, and atmosphere.