Jedediah Caesar
Soft Structures
December 17, 2011–April 1, 2012
Since receiving his BFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in 1998, Los Angeles–based artist Jedediah Caesar has gained international recognition for sculptures that amass found materials into systems that reveal new patterns, often abstract, sometime social. Gathering natural and man-made debris like stones, packaging, and scraps, Caesar preserves them in a range of forms, including colored resin slices, impressions cast in clay, and raw assemblages. What results are works that evoke archeological strata, geodes, and fossils—forms at once raw and complex, echoing a mysterious past and an immediate present. Composed as wall installations that cling to architecture or freestanding sculptures, Caesar's work exudes a blunt "it is what it is" presence, but with a highly visceral, permeable density that hints at greater depth.
For the MFA, Caesar is creating new works inspired by his visits to the MFA collections and surrounding neighborhoods and towns. The exhibition heralds Caesar's return to Boston and his first solo museum exhibition since 2007.
Above: Jedediah Caesar, Untitled (detail), 2011. Mixed media. Courtesy of Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects.
Edward H. Linde Gallery (Gallery 168)
12/23/11 The Boston Globe "Jedediah Caesar: Soft Structures at the MFA" by Sebastian Smee
With generous support from The Contemporaries.