Oliver Lee Jackson
A Journey
The High Line, New York, NY
The High Line announces the special exhibition A Journey, a series of massive new steel sculptures by venerated artist Oliver Lee Jackson. The display of the five towering artworks marks a celebratory moment in the park’s Western Rail Yards. This northernmost section of the park recently reopened for the first time since 2022, as the High Line hits its milestone 15th year as a publicly accessible greenspace.
“Oliver Lee Jackson’s creations feel elegant, mysterious, and strangely out of time, attuned to the spirit of the High Line’s Western Rail Yards section,” said Cecilia Alemani, the Donald R. Mullen Director and Chief Curator of High Line Art. “It’s an honor to showcase this chapter in Jackson’s long and storied career, with a series of sculptures that combine his masterful treatment of painting surfaces with the sculptural presence of his commanding forms.”
While Jackson is better known for his expressive, figurative paintings, the artist also has a robust sculptural practice that he has honed over his five decade-long career. The works on view on the High Line were produced by the artist for this exhibition. Since 2020 Jackson has constructed several monumental, slotted steel sculptures, largely based on smaller works of his from the late 1990s. Jackson’s works are tightly composed but feel improvisational in approach. The artist honors his utilitarian material, and yet the painted, cut, and pockmarked surfaces animate the sculptures beyond their material properties.
The sharp angles and abstract shapes Jackson cuts from the steel coalesce into elegant, perceptible figures. In Untitled II, a male figure with truncated legs is rendered in purple and black with a red heart covered in gold leaf attached to his steel chest. A tray of pencils and a bowl of coins indicate the figure’s humble circumstances while the massive form exudes physical power—an ambiguity of references that underlies much of Jackson's work.
A number of the works on view also continue Jackson’s exploration of a minimal approach to figuration. Untitled III has distilled the human form into a simple collection of narrow planes of steel that evoke a kneeling figure with a bouquet of flowers positioned between her knees. Untitled IV is an assertive figure striding forward, assembled from a combination of steel planes with areas of black and white paint that add to its sense of determined motion.
Two distinct head motifs are repeated in Jackson's presentation; topped with a simple red/orange hat, Untitled I features two faces painted with rudimentary, but distinct, expressions on each side. Untitled V is an abstract sculptural interpretation formed from three interlocking steel plates painted in white with blue trim, and eyes, birds, flowers, and other imagery rendered in black on the outward-facing side to further animate the form.
The exhibition is on view from June through October 2024. Jackson’s sculptures are the first artworks installed in the Western Rail Yards since 2019. The Interim Walkway in the Western Rail Yards, the section located between 30th and 34th Streets, west of 11th Avenue, offers visitors a glimpse of what the High Line was like before it was transformed into the park it is today: a self-seeded landscape along a simple path, with expansive views of the Hudson River and the Empire State Building. In this setting, a rare find in contemporary New York City, Jackson’s sculptures complement the wild natural life that grows on the tail end of the historic wrought iron structure.