In A Zone (detail), 2003
In A Zone (detail), 2003
20-3/8 × 17 inches




Isthmus (detail), 2003
Isthmus (detail), 2003
105-5/8 × 18 inches




Limiting Factor (detail), 2003
Limiting Factor (detail), 2003
20-3/8 × 17 inches




 Robert Jack: BAR = 100nm: Recent Works on Paper

New York artist Robert Jack opens his first San Francisco exhibition at Brian Gross Fine Art on Thursday, March 4, with a reception for the artist at 49 Geary Street from 5:30-7:30pm. This solo exhibition will introduce the work of this talented artist to the San Francisco audience with a series of new abstract works on paper.

In Bar=100nm, his most recent body of work, Jack presents a series of densely worked abstract drawings using graphite, colored pencil, ink, and burn marks on a support medium, often rice paper. Rarely working with more than three materials in any one piece, he creates works reminiscent of geological surfaces, bundles of nerves, or cellular systems. Bar=100nm references the system of measure used in microscopic imaging, a source of inspiration for the current series.

Jack's work is a methodical arrangement of small marks on paper. Each work contains thousands of individual, precisely sized marks in a carefully constructed grid formation. Within the grid, Jack allows each mark to determine the next in what he describes as a process of "pulling in and out of equilibrium until a balance is achieved." Slight variations in the marks cause distinct patterns to emerge within each composition. Controlled yet undulating in their overall effect, the works are a balance of meticulous order and intuitively rendering.

Robert Jack, born in 1971 in New Haven, CT, received his BS in Landscape Architecture from The City College of New York in 1994. His work has been exhibited in numerous group exhibitions in New York as well as in Japan and Spain and most recently appeared in a solo show at Cristinerose/Josée Bienvenu in New York. He lives and works in New York. This is his first show with Brian Gross Fine Art.