Jordan Kasey

In Jordan Kasey’s third exhibition at Nicelle Beauchene Gallery, "The Storm," the artist fills the gallery with eight large-scale paintings, all roiling with drama and atmosphere.

Weather becomes feeling in Kasey’s surreal paintings, acting as a kind of psychological exposition of the solitary figures that inhabit her dream-like landscapes. Subjects are generic in their anonymity, their features obscured by the elements and their figures rendered in the blocky forms characteristic of Kasey's practice. Made place-less and time-less, her scenes are pervaded by a kind of creeping intensity, as if they exist at the edge of a thunderclap.

In Umbrella (2021), torrents of rain slash diagonally across the canvas as a man holds a cup of coffee, steam rising from its lid to cover his face. His umbrella is backlit by the surrounding street traffic, a moody portrait punctuated by flashes of light. Summer Evening (2019) presents a melancholic vision of a figure reclining beside a bowl of fruit, the moment of solitary repose drenched in the brilliant red light of sunset and cool shadowy blues. Dance Party (2021) [pictured] is significantly Kasey’s only painting featuring a group—the crush of bodies under colorful pulsing lights a testament to a year spent in isolation.