Artist Jay Rolfe - Pop Art 3-D Painting
Jay Rolfe's artistic vision is that humans can, and often do, transcend the problems of contemporary life. His work is meant to show beauty, vision, and hope for the 21st Century that uplifts the spirit and nourishes the soul. Using color, shape, 3-D, and huge size, Jay Rolfe shows the essence, the beauty, and transcends the dark side of his subject. Love, peace, freedom, the universe, celebration, and fun are the result.
Yes, many people feel pain, depression, or disorientation in modern life. The art world today is crowded with artists depicting the despair, decay, debris, destruction, and even the supposed futility, of modern life.
If you’d like to see something different to dripping blood, chewing gum on the sidewalk, and assemblages of debris as examples of contemporary art, you’ve come to the right place.
Like artists Paul Cezanne, Wassily Kandinsky, Pierre Bonnard, and Henri Matisse who gave up law to pursue art, Jay Rolfe gave up law to pursue art. The Philadelphia Inquirer described Rolfe as a “late-blooming artist [who] went outside the box.” That's quite a compliment! And metaphorically, it's where I like to be.
And like artists Paul Gauguin, Maurice Utrillo, Henri Rousseau, and Horace Pippin, Jay Rolfe is self-taught. These self-taught artists didn't go to art school and didn't have prestigious apprenticeships. They all produced paintings that were quite creative, distinctive, and fresh. They all painted "outside the box," just as Rolfe does.
Before sacking law for art, Jay Rolfe searched for years for his signature style. When his signature style came to him several years ago, Jay Rolfe knew he had found what he really wanted to do, his passion. Jay Rolfe finally traded what was for him the boredom of law for the bliss of art and became a full time artist!
What is Jay Rolfe’s signature style? It’s creating huge Pop Art 3-D paintings. To learn about Rolfe's process of creating Pop Art 3-D paintings, please click here.
Jay Rolfe’s melancholic artistic temperament allows him to passionately pursue freedom with his art, celebrate the good side of life, and have fun. With a dose of intellectual angst, he explores contemporary issues such as the nature of existence, disorientation, alienation, loneliness, unrequited love, complex relationships, conflict, unrest, war, greed, unfulfilled dreams, yearning, and boredom. Jay Rolfe believes all these issues are the contemporary manifestations of the age-old question of how we relate to each other, to nature, and to God.
Brand New Paintings
Upcoming Events
Rolling River Gallery, New York, August 15, 2008
"Celebrating Life In Our Galaxy" Rolfe's uplifting paintings which show beauty, hope, and vision for the 21st Century, and uplift the spirit and nourish the soul are featured.
"Changing the Canon: Self-Taught Artists," in collaboration with the Philadelphia Museum of Art. James Castle: Portrait of an Artist - film screening and panel discussion. To be held at 5:00 pm on November 19, 2008 at the Penn Humanities Forum at the University of Pennsylvania. Open to the public. In conjunction with James Castle Retrospective at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.