THE NATURE OF NONE
JONATHAN PAUL
SPRING/BREAK Art Fair
Skylight Row DTLA
February 14 - 16, 2020
In Nature of None, Jonathan explores the contradictions of searching for meaning in one’s life. His immersive installation is floating in a cloud filled sky, as if referencing a surrealist dream, however its clinicalness seems to suggest a self improvement spa. The ambiguity is intentional and the works are not without purpose.
“Understanding ourselves involves understanding the nature of who we are as a species. Nature it seems, is ever evolving and full of contradictions. The nature of the planet, of humanity, of language, of meaning, of purpose, of rituals and of personal boundaries, constantly form and reform like clouds in the sky. As we mature we often recognize our excessive desires and begin seeking guidance to improve upon our inner nature. We search for meaning and purpose to help us make sense of ourselves and the world around us. The irony is that nature itself is never static. We fail to recognize the nature of things is to have no nature.”
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Desire Obtain Cherish (DOC) has become known as pop sculptor working across a wide variety of different media and a combination of styles including street, pop, conceptual and appropriation art. His controversial art work explores contemporary desires and obsessions with sex, gender, drugs, commerce, media and fame. Transporting controversial, satirical messages, Desire’s vibrantly colorful, entertaining and impeccably produced art exposes society’s inability to control itself and examines the commercial promise of fulfillment and happiness that ends in dependency.
Meant to have an impact on its audience, DOC employs sarcasm to tackle and provoke society’s value system. Aiming to avoid the conventional, stereotypical standards of “good taste” in art, his ideas are more in line with contemporary commerce and marketing methods than traditional artisan methods.The esteemed New Yorker art critic Benjamin Genocchio characterized DOC’s work as “not malicious, even if his works cut to the bone. He is more like our social conscience, delivering up uncomfortable and unpleasant truths wrapped in the most beautiful and seductive of packages.”
Born in 1975 in Salinas, California, DOC graduated from the nationally acclaimed Parson’s School of Design with a Bachelor’s in Fine Arts. Since his debut in a street-art gallery in Los Angeles (2011), he has risen to prestigious solo shows worldwide., His work has propelled with unusual fervor amid collectors and the public respectively.
DOC lives and works in Los Angeles.
