jim chatelain at paul kotula projects
Help is on the way
“Paul Kotula Projects is pleased to present an exhibition of Jim Chatelain's figurative work from 1974 to 2023. This exhibition has been organized to celebrate the release of Jim Chatelain: Help is on the way, published by Rotland Press, edited by Ryan Standfest, with contributions from Glen Mannisto and Jonathan Rajewski.
Robert Storr, the first American Director of Visual Arts for the Venice Biennele, former Senior Curator of the Museum of Modern Art's Department of Painting and Sculpture and esteemed writer. Storr has taught at CUNY, Harvard, RISD, the NY Studio School, Bard, Tyler School of Art, lectured internationally and is currently a tenured professor at Yale's Department of Painting and Printmaking wrote the following about Jim Chatelain in 2023:
Already an outspoken fan of Philip Guston, lonely renegade of the original "New York School," I was sold on Chatelain, and am to this day. He had and still has a wonderfully blunt way with a brush and a gritty vision altogether worthy of the rustbelt midwest. Call him Detroit's Nelson Algren of painterly painting, and then take a walk on the wildside with him as your guide. You'll meet a cast of hard-bit-ten urban types, extraordinary toughness whose heavily lined faces bear the unmistakable trace of what it takes to just keep going in the late modern purgatory that is big city life in our time. Chatelain knows these people inside and out; he's their recording angel.”
Chatelain’s aggressively painted portraits document his subjects in saturated colorations that describe their rude existence. Carefully placed cadmium reds and oranges with a hint of white teeth create a menacing tone. The arch of linen background was painted after the figure had been rendered as well as the swiftly schmeared grey shadow.
Completely enveloped in a void, the pair is intimately engaged in a nose-to-nose strident conversation. Although the paint is loosely applied, foreshortening of the speaking man’s right arm is spot on.
This series of 12 studies, one more imaginative than the next, results in a cast of characters seen only in one’s nightmares. The line work is spectacular, sweeping and curling with the artist’s hand.
Welcome to America bunches the grotesquely sinister crew into one corner threatening the viewer. The work has been partially collaged possibly indicating a shift in thought during the process. The graphite ranges from deep, dark outlines to lightly penciled furrows and creases in the men’s worn faces. Smudges and erasures are circled on the left entering the errors as part of the composition.
Chatelain presents an Ashcan School philosophy in vigorously expressive brushwork. His pugnacious customers intimidate and bully the viewer. He expertly wields negative space setting scenes on an uncomfortable edge while highlighting his venomous creatures. It’s probably a blessing the pieces are small in scale or one might not have the nerve to linger.
On view through April 27th at Paul Kotula Projects 23255 Woodward Ave Ferndale
*images are mine unless otherwise noted
direct quote from gallery materials
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Thank you for your posts of openings in Detroit!!! I love Detroit artists and art lovers. I’m in the burbs searching for like minded folks.
Do you ever try to get groups to go to art exhibits together???? I would love to do that!!
I'm now very sorry to have missed the opening. I attended the preview of the Queer Detroit Biennial last night at Wayne State, and noticed several beautiful works by Paul Kotula. I am wondering how you will cover this exciting biennial with 170 artists & 800 works of art. Buy lots of coffee.