Regen Projects – Jack Pierson: Less and more

Regen Projects is pleased to present Less and more, a career-spanning exhibition of works by Jack Pierson. This marks the artist’s tenth solo presentation at the gallery.

Over the course of more than three decades Pierson has wryly and poetically explored themes of memory, desire, longing, beauty, despair, loss, and glamour. Although Pierson emerged as the youngest member of the so-called Boston School, which included fellow photographers David Armstrong, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Nan Goldin, and Mark Morrisroe, his practice quickly expanded beyond photography into drawing, painting, collage, installation, and text-based sculpture. Pierson is known for his ability to subtly coax the poetic from the everyday—manifesting romantic affect, longing, and desire through seemingly banal objects, rough sketches, and charged turns of phrase. As New York Times art critic Roberta Smith states in a recent exhibition review, “The deep content of Jack Pierson’s art is the vulnerability of life devoured by time.”

Less and more will be arranged as a poetic, achronological, and comprehensive installation that tracks Pierson’s diverse yet idiosyncratic practice, creating a sojourn through his career. Pierson has undoubtedly mined his own queerness, and specifically queer desire, through both a historical and personal lens, tying these threads together through found images plucked from the media, snapshot photography, portraits, and collage. Early sculptures and installations recalling and even reconstructing slices of the domestic will also be brought together for the exhibition to showcase Pierson’s ability to imbue objects with the tenderness we often associate with the intimate space of the home. His practice has been equally invested in explorations of materiality, the formal qualities of line, shape, and color, and the possibilities inherent in abstraction. As such, this exhibition will showcase a wide selection of drawings, paintings, watercolors, and collages that provide evidence of Pierson’s long-standing commitment to these mediums and modes of expression.

In addition to bringing together work produced during the length of Pierson’s career, Less and more will also present a selection of new works. The exhibition will include large-format photographs that transform earlier works into historical documents, text-based sculptures, and collaged works on metal supports that can be rearranged and reconfigured upon each showing to account for new material collected by the artist.