Juxtapoz Magazine – Vespers: An Interview with Justin Liam O’Brien

When I past spoke with Justin Liam O’Brien back again in 2020, it’s attention-grabbing that loneliness and becoming shed in the crowd was a subject matter we circled the wagons with, so to speak. Minor did we know the transformation that would even now persist today, the evolution of our own histories and collective conscious. Now in the slide of 2022, on the verge of his solo clearly show Vespers at Richard Heller Gallery, O’Brien is contemplating about spirituality in the resourceful approach, and nevertheless pondering loneliness in a globe comprehensive of fables and rituals. 

Evan Pricco: When I initial noticed the title of the present was Vespers, I of study course promptly began imagining of the religious implications and then really required to know how you arrived to this title?Justin Liam O’Brien: Vespers are an night prayer company in the Catholic church. I definitely enjoy the strategy of an evening mass. I believe of the smell of a censer and candlelight. Men and women are gathered all around quietly. Remaining by itself in a place of paintings, as I was for numerous evenings this earlier summer months, can sense anything like the working experience of becoming in a sacred space. I chose Vespers as the title due to the fact lots of of the will work began to really feel like nocturnes to me. Also because a lot of the do the job was influenced by paintings of stories or characters from the bible. 

Do you come across the course of action of portray like a religious practical experience for you? Or we can switch spiritual with religious. 
I think portray can be amazingly non secular. It presents a finite space to convey infinite suggestions. That looks very comparable to meditation or prayer to me. But it also is dependent on the context, the situation. From time to time painting can be amazingly challenging or manic. But then yet again so can prayer or meditation.

You have actually sharpened your edges, so to converse, in your new works. The roundness is now much more angular. What have you been exploring, or what do you relate, to your shift? 
I used a large amount of time in the pandemic understanding about renaissance and baroque artwork heritage. I have normally loved history, but it became a genuine rabbit gap for me in 2020-21. I still have so substantially to understand! As vacation began to open up back up I was eager to see some of the sites I had uncovered about – London, Florence, and Madrid in specific. Seeing all the artwork in these destinations was a real shock to the procedure. I am from New York and have absent to museums here since I was youthful, but acquiring out of the nation and looking at art that I’ve only read through about or seen on line was a pivotal instant for me. It genuinely dramatically impacted my practice.

You have a history in digital and 3D artwork, and I preferred to ask you if that form of affect is one thing you consciously think about when you paint? 
In some cases, but not usually. Once in a while l use 3D modeling application to support approach a painting or make reference imagery to get the job done from, but when I paint I am concentrating on execution and improvisation with the resources. That said, I was earning 3D types and renders on my laptop or computer from the time I was in center college. I imagine that the way I approach light-weight, shadow, colour, sort, is indelibly affected by looking at digital visuals.

There was a hanging thing you mentioned to me from our job interview in 2019, this idea that your perform at the time was “about emotion by yourself in a crowd of people today.” This get the job done, in particular is a change, but we have long gone by means of such a traumatic time in the world, that I question what most likely improved your perceptions of loneliness and artwork-generating considering the fact that 2019? 
I’ve believed a good deal about that sentiment as perfectly. When we past spoke I was working with a additional private practical experience of loneliness. I was frightened of currently being still left behind, left out, damaged up with, and so forth. These are unquestionably nevertheless fears, but I comprehend them in a way I failed to then. Perhaps the paintings helped? Then the pandemic redefined all of that for me. Studio everyday living has wonderful freedoms but it can be rather solitary and alienating at occasions. I can no for a longer time say it is really just about sensation by yourself in a place complete of men and women, even if which is still salient in the work. It is really far more emotionally or narratively summary, more broad. I’m most happy of how these works feel like they are views of the similar planet. I believe of most of them as type of uneasy or liminal. They’re weird. On the line in between hope and question, wish and concern. But they have a great deal of place for ponder and I come across that extremely compelling.

I generally talk to this to folks when they come out to LA for their solo exhibits, but what is initially on your checklist of matters to do, things to take in, matters to see? 
This will be my to start with time at any time in LA so I’m type of anxious, but also seriously energized! I hope the tacos stay up to the buzz. I’m psyched to go to the Getty, but also just to push all over. We rented a Mustang convertible form of impulsively. I assume that need to be enjoyable… 

Justin Liam O’Brien’s Vespers will be on perspective at Richard Heller Gallery in Santa Monica from November 5—December 17, 2022