Jesse Draxler and the Authenticity of Images

Jesse Draxler is a Los Angeles based artist merging diverse mediums through his black and white pictural explorations. He uses collages, paint and different numeric tools to create dark, but beautifully touching artworks.  His last solo exhibition, Terror Management, was presented in 2016 at Booth Gallery, NYC. It took its name from the book The Worm at the Core; which explores the effects of death consciousness on humans.

His interest for death and for psychological torment is clearly visible through his own representations of the human body; torn and deconstructed. Sometimes violently distorted, the subjects in Draxler’s pieces create powerful images to which one may easily refer. His pieces, which he considers self-portraits, embody the puzzling psychic states we all once experienced when thinking about death.

Even if his work is firstly about human sensitivity and expression, there’s something conceptual about it. Inspired by the work of Richard Prince, which he also quotes in one of his paintings, Draxler often uses appropriation as the starting point for his creations. He takes photos from magazines or other mass media communication and transforms them into artworks through a unique reconstructive approach.

Ultimately, the artist aims to bring out realness and authenticity, from images initially created in the name of capitalism, by adding expressivity and depth to those representations he often finds empty. Draxler’s work replaces artificiality with humanity, therefore improving our vision, helping us to actually see something.

Images Jesse Draxler & Paul Booth Gallery
Instagram @jessedraxler