JERALD IEANS (1971 - )
Untitled.

Oil on canvas, stretched on wooden panel, 2000. 914x914 mm; 36x36 inches. Signed in ink on the canvas overlap, verso.

Provenance: the artist; Tyler Fine Art, St. Louis; private collection.

Jerald Ieans finds his painterly voice by combining organic shapes and minimalist backgrounds to articulate his process. Influenced by Brice Marden, Agnes Martin, and Cy Twombly, as well as other abstract artists, his practice is rooted in the pure existence of the materiality of the medium. Ieans views his work as neither minimalist nor post-minimalist, but as a series of self-expressions stemming from the well-spring of shape, color, and form.

Jerald Ieans was born in Waukegan, Il and studied art throughout his life. But he forged his own path, bypassing the traditional art school route to train independently. Painting daily in his studio and studying at the Saint Louis Art Museum formed his art education while finding his own artistic voice.

Ieans was included in the hugely influential exhibition Freestyle, 2001, curated by Thelma Golden at the Studio Museum in Harlem, and has had several solo exhibitions including Jerald Ieans: On Being Blue, Works in the Collection, at the Saint Louis Art Museum, 2007. His work is in several institutional collections including the Saint Louis Art Museum, the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, Sedalia, MO, the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, KS and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.