Award-winning children's book author Oliver Jeffers brings a sense of curiosity and a narrative sensibility to a new series of oil paintings at Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery. For All We Know, examines the cosmos and our connections to them. An award-winning artist, illustrator and author, Jeffers was inspired by his son to revisit his boyhood fascination with outer space. His surreal, nocturnal visions bring together constellation maps, deep sea divers, astronauts, sinking ships and pianos to tell stories about space, exploration and identity.
The twin infinities of sea and sky weave through Jeffers’ paintings, creating an ongoing narrative about outer space and our place in the universe. An astronaut in The Stories We Tell floats in the ocean, holding a lit match above the waves, the match and the starlight reflected in the helmet visor. Two astronauts cling to a piano, in Lost at Space, floating away from an iceberg and a sinking, flaming ocean liner reminiscent of the Titanic. In The Rescue, a deep sea diver leaps through the starry night air towards a burning piano, which is triangulated by bright lines of force. The diver and the piano mirror trapeze artists about to perform an acrobatic feat. These recurring characters share a coffee break in A Break with the Unknown, standing together on a flat gray surface that fades behind them into an infinite night sky, their mugs reflected in their helmet visors. The dreamlike logic of his work draws the viewer into a place of introspection, peril and wonder.
