The story begins with Goo Goo Doll Robby Takac’s “Music is Art” concert fundraiser and roadshow Friday at Niagara University. The college is also the location of the Castellani Art Museum, whose curator, Michael Beam, was a student of the artist whose “Arkansas Sunset” painting appeared on the cover of the Goo’s first album (so was Takac — two different schools). Thus, while the campus rocks this weekend, the Castellani will present the opening of “JED: 30 Years of Painting by Jed Jackson.”
There is more to Jackson than merely serving as a Goo Goo’s muse. An accomplished and prolific painter, author of art history books and currently a professor at the University of Memphis, Jackson “has three other shows about to open, two in New York City and one in St. Louis,” according to Beam, in addition to the Castellani exhibition.
In the 1980s, he was a fixture in Western New York’s cultural constellation as a painter with exhibitions at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery and the Nina Freudenheim Gallery, board member of Buffalo’s celebrated Hallwalls art space and instructor at Medaille College. It was at Medaille that he inspired Takac and former Goo Goo Doll George Tutuska in ways of looking at art.
Said Jackson, “Several of my best paintings were executed in Buffalo, in my studio on Lexington Avenue. Openings at Hallwalls, fish fries and Polish and German food and lake effect whiteouts. It’s great to be able to return to refresh those memories.”
The Castellani show begins with a Sunday afternoon reception — Jackson and Takac will be in attendance — and runs through Sept. 20. The celebrated “Arkansas Sunset” will be on display, as well as 24 other paintings, a number of them loaned by local collectors who obtained them during Jackson’s Buffalo days.
Jackson is originally from Arkansas, with stops for schooling and teaching across America. His expressive and colorful work has been shown in more than 100 galleries, in solo and group exhibitions, throughout America and Europe. There is a vibrant appreciation of popular culture in Jackson’s works, what he calls “a manner of image-sorting, a kind of improvisation.” The observer will note cues from literature, movies, fashion magazines, music and politics in his work.
Although politics informs many of Jackson’s works, the most blatant will not be at the Castellani.
“We took the overtly political pieces out,” Beam said. “The serious, mysterious pieces are what’s in the show.”
Mysterious indeed. The artwork embodies realism with a twist and a startling sense of color. “Arkansas Sunset,” for example, depicts a pickup-driving good ol’ boy, surrounded by a luminescent and dynamic through-the-windows panorama in hues that match the dashboard dials, a liquor bottle and a packet of chewing tobacco with him on the seat. It at once seems so familiar and so otherworldly.
This weekend’s confluence of art and music had its start in the 1980s. When curator and Philadelphia native Beam was offered the Castellani position in 2003, he phoned Jackson, his teacher at Southern Illinois University, for advice about life in Western New York. The topic of the Goo Goo Dolls kept coming up.
Back before the south Buffalo band was internationally known and respected, Takac considered Jackson a mentor at Medaille (hence, the album cover as an homage). This weekend’s events, then, are something of a reunion for all three men, as well as a homecoming of sorts for Jackson. It’s nice when students remember their teachers that way.
Art
Related Photos
-
The Goo Goo Dolls' album "Jed" featured the painting "Arkansas Sunset" by Jed Jackson. Contributed Photo
March 12, 2009
ART: Jed Jackson returns for exhibit
- Art
-
-
LIFESTYLE: Make art part of Syracuse trip
I am not an art critic. I can’t pick out a Renoir from a Michelangelo to save my life, nor can I even define what the Impressionist period is.
But I know what I like. And I like the Everson Museum of Art. -
ART: The NACC presents Holiday Extravaganza, "Artists and Friends"
Rachel Schiff was hanging her jewel-toned paintings in the Garden Gallery, admiring the soft light coming in from the giant windows and the beautiful marble floors.
-
MUSIC: The songs (and paintings) of Ron Hawkins
A lot of things have changed since Ron Hawkins was on the stage at Gateway Harbor in North Tonawanda in 2006.
-
ART: Buffalo Society of Artists show hits Kenan Center
The Buffalo Society of Artists is reaching out.
-
ART: Warhol photo collection comes to Castellani
"In the future, everyone will be world famous for 15 minutes.”
-
ART: The Lewiston Art Festival
In nearly every way, the Lewiston Art Festival is growing.
-
LIFESTYLE: 'Body Worlds' challenges the mind, heart
The “Body Worlds” exhibit was created as a vehicle for science, but it has stirred up emotions of a far different sort in pretty much every city that it’s visited.
-
ART: NACC goes "Beyond the Barrel"
The Niagara Arts and Cultural Center typically opens its “Beyond the Barrel” art exhibition at the end of June, but this year presented an opportunity that NACC staff couldn’t pass up.
-
ART: 100 American Craftsmen descend on Lockport
There will be art you can wear, art you can clean with and art you can drink from.
-
ART: Jed Jackson returns for exhibit
Thus, while the campus rocks this weekend, the Castellani will present the opening of “JED: 30 Years of Painting by Jed Jackson.”
- More Art Headlines
-
Franciscan Files Tell Stories of Priest Abuse
Wildfire Destroys 2 Homes
Flight Diverted After Suspicious Note
Panel Recommends Against Routine Prostate Test
Remains of Veterans Found in Basement Are Buried
Fired Lingerie Employee Claims Discrimination
Joplin Remembers Deadly Tornado, 1 Year Later
Serial Stabbings Suspect Guilty of Murder
Facebook Shares Continue Negative Slide
8 Hurt in Oklahoma Shooting After NBA Playoff
US Airways: Diverted Flight Has 'Landed Safely'
A Few Odd Business Sparks but Europe Gloomy
Revived Focus on Regulation After JPMorgan Loss
Gerard Butler: the Good, the Bad and the Cannes
At Least 25 Dead in India Train Collision
Raw Video: Private Rocket Blasts Off
Boy to Rescuers: 'Do You Have a Plan?'
Doctors and Devotees Debate Barefoot Running
Blacks Seek to Find Their Own Missing
Houston Museum Unveils $85 Million Dinosaur Hall
