Division of Labor

Jon Tracy | Jess Wheaton

January 15 to February 13, 2010

In summer 2006 a disquieting study undertaken by the General Social Survey was published in the American Sociological Review. It had been found that a quarter of Americans say they have no one with whom they can discuss personal troubles, more than double the number who were similarly isolated in 1985. An increasingly fragmented society means that the psychological and civic benefits of intimate social ties are evaporating, and in these current hard times, far more people appear to suffer alone.

Tracy and Wheaton, both born near the first study, and both Americans who have lived in other countries, study both meanings of the phrase Division of Labor through their practice. Together they act as both a “contingent” of labor, laboring in the name of partnership, and as artists dividing between themselves the work they believe needs to be done. Tracy’s paintings place people from his life in fantastic, combinative settings suggestive of the nature of globalization. Within these environments, his figures tackle real-world challenges through his lens of personal symbolism. Wheaton’s paintings and installations explore ways of making both historically “universal,” as well as subjective thought and understanding, readable. This method conveys a deep faith in visual logic, while commenting on the impossibility of objective understanding.

Jon Tracy holds a BFA from the California College of the Arts, San Francisco, and spent this past summer studying art in Paris, France. His work has been shown at the State Capital in California, The Oliver Art Center in Oakland, and Ego Park in Oakland. Jon lives and works in Oakland, California.

Jess Wheaton is a painter currently living and working in San Francisco. She received her BFA from the California College of the Arts in December. Her work has been shown at Rare Device in San Francisco, the Fifty Fifty Arts Collective in Canada, and Artists Space in New York.