Mr Jago: 'Rewild'

This October, Unit London presents a new exhibition by Bristol-based multi-disciplinary artist, Mr Jago. Through the artist’s distinct painterly style, which blurs the boundaries between graffiti, abstract expressionism, and contemporary modernism, Mr Jago’s large-scale textured canvases call into question and document the ongoing impact that humanity has on the environment. In ‘Rewild’, landscapes are reimagined, as if returned to a wild and self-willed state.

Mr Jago started his career in Bristol’s acclaimed graffiti scene, before honing his distinguished abstract gestural style. He draws on a wide range of influences, from the pioneering graffiti artist Futura 2000 to the Colour Field paintings of renowned Abstract Expressionist, Mark Rothko, alongside the palettes and application of Jules Olitski, Dan Chistensen and Albert Stadler. Mr Jago updates this aesthetic for the modern age, taking the idiom of spray painting to a level of sophistication rarely seen in the medium; there is maturity and depth to his use of colour that he uses to describe the natural world.

This exhibition focuses on the term ‘rewilding’, an environmental initiative which seeks to conserve, restore and protect natural processes and areas. In this latest body of work the artist is seen to ‘rewild’ his art, emphasising the freedom of expression and its connection to nature. In these dripped and splattered scenes, chaos and calm, doom and joy are conveyed in equal measure across surface and substance. While anxiety is undeniably a key source of their making, these works also represent a sense of hope that perhaps verges on a fantasy to escape.

Rewild celebrates Mr Jago’s third solo exhibition with Unit London, following Nil in 2015 and Strata in 2018. It can be seen as both a continuation and transportation beyond his previous works, in much the same nature and spirit as the gallery’s own evolution, and indeed the pace of our modern Mr Jago, society and developing world today.