Opening November 18 at Principle Gallery in Alexandria, Virginia, is a new solo show for Jeremy Mann, whose works cover a broad spectrum of contemporary art, from film and photography to drawing and paintings. His newest show will focus on pieces made with oil paint and graphite. 
Beneath the Hallowed Heart, charcoal on paper, 30 x 30"
Mann has continuously pushed his work in exciting directions as he takes his fans and collectors on fascinating journeys that have stretched into beautiful abstraction and back again. Mann spoke to American Art Collector about his new show:
I see even more abstraction, and even disruption, at the edges of your work, including in The Last Fleurette. What is inspiring the painting around the figure in these new paintings?
A silent goal in the corner of my mind has long been to return to my early painting roots now that I have developed the skills to speak more fluently with the medium. A balance of dichotomies is a belief I hold to be true in all aspects of life which can be honed in the painting process. In my younger years of experimentation and cathartic release, marks such as these were dominant, and the representation…not represented well. Breaking instilled rules and practices is like breaking through a 5-foot brick wall with a hammer. Once it begins, you chip away tirelessly at your ingrained structure until you break through. These marks now breathing again in my work are my banging on that wall. 
Sa Riera Sea #1, oil on panel, 4 x 5"Tell me about Beneath the Hallowed Heart and how it came to be.
I’ve been learning from my struggles with analog Polaroids from my homemade cameras and the darkroom experiments I expose them to. One such endeavor is the extraction of an enlargeable negative from instant film packs which I’ve discovered is achieved with the delicate use of a dental root canal chemical. Add to this recipe expired films I’ve kept brewing in the fridge and a healthy dose of airport X-ray exposures (International TSA’s have now forgotten how real film functions…to my benefit!). The fall off of analog photography has opened the doors to an emboldening new adventure, and I remain on a quest to imbue my artworks with the inspiration gleaned from these darkroom experiments. A search for images that speak to my own soul in ways I struggle to articulate fluently, which I suppose is a good definition of why an artist endlessly creates. A series of large charcoal drawings resulted from these gibbering articulations and this was one of the first, created after I had painted its sister oil painting The Hallowed Heart.
The Last Fleurette, oil and enamel on papered panel, 47 x 36"
I’m curious to know what your collectors tell you about why they buy your work. Do they tell you what draws them to your pieces? If so, what do they say?
Me too! Often I’m too nervous or awkward from being thrust into the center of the judgment spotlight (which exists mostly just in my own head at an opening) and am usually doing all I can to not sound like an idiot when I meet collectors. No matter how long I’ve been doing this, I still find it wonderfully humbling and strange to meet someone who spends their hard-earned money on artworks that I create alone in a room while I’m still at a stage far from where I want to be, or believe I can be, when the articulation matches the poetry. Knowing full well I may never reach that point, conversations I have with collectors are often kept to the safety of formal qualities. The more ambiguous emotions which lie behind my artwork I think are felt as strongly amongst my collectors as within myself while creating them, and perhaps whisper so loudly that they don’t need any more explanation other than the purchase itself. From my perspective, a purchase of my artwork doesn’t so much equate to the owning of an actual artwork, but rather as a generous donation to continue the struggle I love with a little less panic. —
Principle Gallery 208 King Street • Alexandria, VA 22314 • (703) 739-9326 • www.principlegallery.com
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