Jordan Cantwell is a contemporary artist who follows an instinct driven process to uncover a visual harmony to our primal connection. This connection reaches back to something ancient and ritualistic, touching on the natural genesis of mark making. A native Californian of Sicilian and Irish descent, Cantwell is conscious of the nuanced differences in culture, particularly as this defines and delimits North American and European perspectives and identity. Cantwell's work is influenced by zoosophy, Mesoamerican myths and abstract expressionism. His travels have allowed his practice to touch on an outward facing approach to his visual language and a universality to our ancient selves. For Cantwell, painting is a medium for conjuring the life force of animals and spaces, yet one that also surrounds and inhabits us.
My paintings are the result of a ritualistic process. This process includes a series of combative encounters between the artist, the subject and the canvas; where the instinct driven process seeks to uncover a visual harmony to illuminate our forgotten selves. Learning to control the aspects of the process, to some degree, allows you to find secret structures that explain to the instinct of the visual. The movements of direction and perspective, in my paintings, act in a distortion of harmonious interactions and playful moments. The work can present a oneness of almost congested thickness, hints of depths, and constant shifting of weight. There is a musical aspect in the way things repeat, move forward, move in reverse, mutating and pushing matter as the flow pleases. The matter is usually suggested towards the natural world in the form of weathering landscapes, atmospheric energies, and the animals within us. Some present time and change within a geological melody. Some tell a story within a pattern, within a landscape, within an animal. As technology manufactures changes to our immediate behavior, we will always long for our connection to the natural world, the landscape, the ancient knowledge we once held and the essence of our natural selves.
Exhibitions & Residencies
2010
Student Award Exhibition, San Diego State University - First Prize Awarded | Presidential Purchase Award
2011
Solo Show and Residency, Alexander Salazar Fine Art, San Diego, California
Alexander Salazar Fine Art Group Show, San Diego, California
2012
Thumbprint Gallery Group Show, North Park, San Diego, California
2013
Solo Show and Residency, Cirello Gallery, North Park, San Diego, California
2015
ArtLab Group Show and Live Painting, Normal Heights, California
2016
Solo Show, Little Dame Gallery, North Park, California
Verbatim Books Group Show, North Park, California
2017
Solo Show, Index Urban, Hillcrest, California
Painting featured in Saint Archer Brewing Commercial.
Solo Show, Vizual Culture, San Diego, CA
2018
Mural Review Show El Jefe, Chula Vista, California
Benefit Group Show, Escondido, California
2019
Solo Show, Royale, Pt. Loma, California
2020
Royale Group Show, Black Lives Matters Benefit, Pt. Loma, California
2022
Deus Aniumas | Solo Show and Residency, Phoenix Athens, Athens, Greece
The Times Of Art, Group Show, Phisikia, Greece
2023
Medina Art Gallery / Art Number 23, Group Show, Rome, Italy
