Jeff Chester’s works are a combination of colour fields and faces. The Canadian born painter places areas of pure color in contrast with flattened, stylized human figures.

The colored panels, in one sense, follow on with the modernist traditions of the 1960s. ”What you see is what you see” as Frank Stella put it. They allow the viewer to enjoy color in its purest form. However, the juxtaposition of these panels with the figure also opens a new dialogue, recontextualizing the monochromes from objects into symbols.  What is created is a tension between the spiritual and the physical, the image and the object.

Themes of existential anxiety, nothingness, death and identity are present in the paintings. The figure is an archetypal human.  Not a portrait of someone in particular, but intended to be more like a mirror in which the viewers can gaze into themselves.

The works avoid any overt painterly gestures. They are controlled and distinctly anti-bravado. The composition is restrained and the surface is smooth, glossy and carefully crafted.

Education

2002 Bachelor of Education, Junior/Senior High School Art and Biology. Nipissing
University. North Bay, Ontario.
2001 Bachelor of Arts, Fine Art. University of Guelph. Guelph, Ontario.
2001 Bachelor of Science, Biological Science. University of Guelph. Guelph,
Ontario.

Exhibitions

Solo
2018 Parlour. Winnipeg, Manitoba
2017 Winnipeg Art Gallery Shop. Winnipeg, Manitoba
2016 Fools and Horses. Winnipeg, Manitoba
2014 Pavilion Gallery Museum. Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Group

2021 KICKSTART: A Group Show, Voltz Clarke Gallery, New York, NY.
2020 Market Art + Design Art Fair, Hamptons, NY
2020 Start Somewhere, Voltz Clarke Gallery X Penske Projects, New York, NY
2020 Spectrum: Visions 2020, Carriage Barn Art Center, New Canaan, CT
2019 Disparity, Voltz Clarke Gallery, New York, NY
2018 Ian Tan Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia
2018 AAF London Battersea with Decorazon Gallery, London, UK
2018 MHC Gallery 20 th Anniversary Exhibition, Winnipeg, Manitoba
2018 AAF New York Fall with Decorazon Gallery, New York, NY
2018 Reveal Art Fair with Decorazon Gallery, Saratoga Springs, NY
2018 MHC Gallery, Winnipeg, Manitoba
2017 Online Bombay Sapphire Artisan Series
2017 AAF UK with Decorazon Gallery, Battersea London, UK
2017 AAF Stockholm with Decorazon Gallery, Stockholm SE
2017 AAF NYC with Decorazon Gallery, NY, NY
2017 Ian Tan Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia
2016 Elliot Fouts Gallery, Sacramento, California
2016 Ian Tan Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia
2016 Ian Tan Projects, Tsawwassen, British Columbia
2016 Winnipeg Art Gallery, Gallery Ball Auction. Winnipeg, Manitoba
2015 Ian Tan Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia
2014 Winnipeg Art Gallery, Gallery Ball Auction. Winnipeg, Manitoba
2013 Terrace in the Park. Pavilion Gallery Museum. Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Special Projects
2018 Paint scheme for tail art on 435 Sqn Hercules
2018 Paint scheme design for the Royal Canadian Air Force CF18 Demonstration Jet