I was a dust mote.
Because of you, I am a mountain.
I lagged behind.
You urged me on till I forged ahead.
Because of you, I’m a cure for wounded hearts, an ecstatic head,
a pair of clapping hands.
Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī
Tony Just, born in 1969 in the United States, has been active internationally since the mid-1990s, primarily based in New York. After a hiatus in his artistic career in 2008, when he relocated to Berlin, his painting style and working methods evolved due to increased isolation and trials. In his latest works, Just captures imperfect traces found in everyday objects onto canvas. These works expand on stains left on protective paper and sketches made during his time in Tbilisi, Georgia. Among this new series, the artwork "An Ecstatic Head" best represents the characteristics of the series. With a projection of red light, it gives a sensation akin to piercing smoke. This technique, as if tearing the surface, allows viewers to experience the artist's direct "contact". Such contact imbues the artwork with vitality, creating a strong presence akin to a "ghost" and leaving behind vivid memories and impressions. W. J. T. Mitchell described this as the "condensation and storage of labor" in painting, where the canvas embodies traces of the artist's time, effort, emotions, and skills from the creation process onwards, condensed and preserved beyond time for the viewer's engagement.
Just's prominent motif, the "stain of tears," was inspired by Hans Fallada's "Schoppen" (Drinker), dealing with the existential crisis of a mid-20th-century intellectual. Initially, he conducted tests observing stains of wine and later of ink poured onto pages. Over a year, these tests evolved into conceptual works directly transferred onto canvas, which were then serialized in various sizes and colors. The repetitive reproduction accompanied by performance allows the artist to feel the time of "being" through the act of painting, as Just expressed. These ongoing works, developed over a decade, hold profound meaning for Tony. Continuously discovering these imperfect, abstract shapes and transferring them onto canvas, Just strives to transcend the dichotomy of painting as a medium and artistic dialectic.
The exhibition title "an ecstatic head" is excerpted from the 13th-century Persian poet Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī's anthology "Gold." According to the English translation by Haleh Liza Gafori, Rūmī's gold refers not to the precious metal but to an emotional state reached through an alchemical process of transforming consciousness, signifying a more serene and compassionate state of being. In summary, the prayer of Sufism is "please let me love deeper." Gold can represent the spiritual ecstasy attained through the deepest love. Just desires for his paintings to be felt spiritually by people but acknowledges the realm where it cannot be enforced. Ultimately, this exhibition remains an expression of the moment of waiting.
Tony Just currently works in Berlin, Germany. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Painting from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a Master of Fine Arts degree in Painting from Hunter College, New York. His major exhibitions include White Columns, KARMA, Gavin Brown's Enterprise, MoMA PS1 (New York), Maisonneuve (Paris), Arratia Beer, PSM (Berlin), among others.
