PRESS RELEASE

 

No Fric(k)tion

Artists: Jason McLean & Devon Marinac

 

(NEW YORK, NY) Van Der Plas presents No Fric(k)tion at the gallery’s location on the Lower East Side, 156 Orchard Street, New York, NY. The exhibition introduces Jason McLean and Devon Marinac, two of the gallery’s represented artists, as collaborators. McLean’s drawing titled No Fric(k)tion (2022) is the inspiration for the title and a key piece that cohesively brings together the visual and conceptual basis for presenting the work made by both artists. A mutual friendship between them began in Toronto when Marinac interviewed McLean for the University of Toronto newspaper in 2013. Since then, their friendship has grown, they’ve partnered on work together, and continue their mentor (McLean)-mentee (Marinac) rapport. The exhibition hopes to showcase their similar aesthetics of collaged rearrangement and drawn remapping, expression of carnivalesque humor, as well as moments of their collective working practices.

 

No Fric(k)tion (2022) is about a time when a clash between McLean’s wife and kids caused tension in their household. The imagery of the work, depicted with marker and pencil, portrays a McDonald’s receipt that represents the moment when McLean walked to the corner fast-food restaurant to gain a reprieve. The original drawing was on an actual McDonald’s receipt before being transposed to the larger work. Like many of McLean’s mixed media drawings, this piece holds various motifs as representations of the artist’s surroundings. The illustrated memory is a mix of interactions between people and the environment through the shapes of the garbage depot, the local brewery, and a bird-like yellow walking figure. The work is a reminder of a moment and a peace truce.

 

Finally, McLean and Marinac have collaborated on a series of four collages this year titled Scissorhead (2023), Queen of Pike Place (2023), Diamond Faces (2023), and Tic Tac Toe (2023). The multi-layered works began when Marinac first laid down the collaged material on paper. As Marinac left them with a mutual intermediary, McLean picked them up while passing through on a trip and began drawing on them. The pieces represent a balance between the artists’ work. Further to these four pieces, the exhibition No Fric(k)tion aims at being a prosthetic of the artists’ collaborations, extending the meaning of their practices, and showcasing the shared talent of both.