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Justin John Greene at Andrew Rafacz

Ghost Writer

Artist: Justin John Greene

Exhibition title: Secret Slob

Venue: Andrew Rafacz, Chicago, US

Date: October 29 – December 22, 2016

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artists and Andrew Rafacz, Chicago

Submitted for your approval
By an author’s loyal ghost

Endlessly toiling
Through the night
Staring at a screen
Splayed across a mattress
Where we lay our scene
And when at last
Its glass goes black
The reflection shows
The Slob

Outside amongst the concrete
A system rigged and mean
Some try-hard leans against a hood
Devising of a scheme

Heavy baskets of deplorables
And dishes in the sink
He hasn’t time to give a shit
He hasn’t space to think

Ladies and germs
The slob
See his haggard stare
When will he pay the mounting debts
Against integrity

Described in J.D. Salinger’s The Cather in the Rye, a ‘secret slob’ is someone who behaves as outwardly virtuous while hiding their sordid habits. Where his last exhibition, Moonlighting, described the incessant hustle that one participates in as a worker striving in a precarious economy, Justin John Greene’s newest body of work examines the dubious and dangerous consequences of that ongoing hustle. Forced to bluff, concede, and bend or mask one’s own being in order to get by, the characters in Greene’s paintings are engaged in a murky, complex narrative of contemporary survival.

JUSTIN JOHN GREENE (American, b. 1984) lives and works in Los Angeles. He earned a BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2007, and studied art history at Lorenzo de’Medici, Florence, Itay in 2005. Solo exhibitions and projects include Moonlighting, Loudhailer, Los Angeles, CA (2016); Raw Deal, DIANA, Los Angeles, CA (2015); and A Dusk That Never Settles, Actual Size, Los Angeles, CA (2014). Recent group exhibitions include Logic Frog, Allen & Eldridge, New York, NY; Surreal, König Galerie, Berlin, Germany; and Tickles, 356 Mission, Los Angeles, CA. He has been exhibited at art fairs in Chicago and Copenhagen. This is his first exhibition with the gallery.

Secret Slob Install_1

Secret Slob Install_2

Secret Slob Install_3

Secret Slob Install_4

Secret Slob Install_5

Secret Slob Install_6

Secret Slob Install_7

Secret Slob Install_8

Secret Slob Install_9

Secret Slob Install_10

Neighborhood Watch

Justin John Greene, Neighborhood Watch, 2016
Oil on canvas, 41 in x 27 in

Secret Slob

Justin John Greene, Secret Slob, 2016
Oil on canvas, 41 in x 27 in

Dice Eyes

Justin John Greene, Dice Eyes, 2016
Oil on canvas, 20 in x 16 in

Bar Scene

Justin John Greene, Bar Scene, 2016
Oil on canvas, 45 in x 71 in

Acotr

Justin John Greene, Actor, 2016
Oil on canvas, 41 in x 27 in

The Sob is Dead

Justin John Greene, The Slob is Dead, 2016
Oil on canvas, 41 in x 27 in

Ghost Writer

Justin John Greene, Ghost Writer, 2016
Oil on canvas, 48 in x 40 in

Bar Tender

Justin John Greene, Bar Tender, 2016
Oil on canvas, 20 in x 16 in

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