City Life Org – Artist Oliver Lee Jackson erects five new Painted Steel Sculptures among the wild, self-seeded landscape along the High Line’s newly reopened Western Rail Yards

Oliver Lee Jackson, Untitled V, 2024. Photo by Timothy Schenck.

Five Monumental Artworks Were Created this Year for High Line Exhibition

The High Line announced the special exhibition Oliver Lee Jackson, A Journey, a series of massive new steel sculptures by venerated artist Oliver Lee Jackson, as now on view. The display of the five towering artworks marks a celebratory moment in the park’s Western Rail Yards. This northernmost section of the park recently reopened for the first time since 2022, as the High Line hits its milestone 15th year as a publicly accessible greenspace.

“Oliver Lee Jackson’s creations feel elegant, mysterious, and strangely out of time, attuned to the spirit of the High Line’s Western Rail Yards section,” said Cecilia Alemani, the Donald R. Mullen Director and Chief Curator of High Line Art. “It’s an honor to showcase this chapter in Jackson’s long and storied career, with a series of sculptures that combine his masterful treatment of painting surfaces with the sculptural presence of his commanding forms.”

While Jackson is better known for his expressive, figurative paintings, the artist also has a robust sculptural practice that he has honed over his five decade-long career. The works on view on the High Line were produced by the artist for this exhibition. Since 2020 Jackson has constructed several monumental, slotted steel sculptures, largely based on smaller works of his from the late 1990s. Jackson’s works are tightly composed but feel improvisational in approach. The artist honors his utilitarian material, and yet the painted, cut, and pockmarked surfaces animate the sculptures beyond their material properties.

The sharp angles and abstract shapes Jackson cuts from the steel coalesce into elegant, perceptible figures. In Untitled II, a male figure with truncated legs is rendered in purple and black with a red heart covered in gold leaf attached to his steel chest. A tray of pencils and a bowl of coins indicate the figure’s humble circumstances while the massive form exudes physical power—an ambiguity of references that underlies much of Jackson’s work.

A number of the works on view also continue Jackson’s exploration of a minimal approach to figuration. Untitled III has distilled the human form into a simple collection of narrow planes of steel that evoke a kneeling figure with a bouquet of flowers positioned between her knees. Untitled IV is an assertive figure striding forward, assembled from a combination of steel planes with areas of black and white paint that add to its sense of determined motion.

Two distinct head motifs are repeated in Jackson’s presentation; topped with a simple red/orange hat, Untitled I features two faces painted with rudimentary, but distinct, expressions on each side. Untitled V is an abstract sculptural interpretation formed from three interlocking steel plates painted in white with blue trim, and eyes, birds, flowers, and other imagery rendered in black on the outward-facing side to further animate the form.

The exhibition, presented with special thanks to Andrew Kreps Gallery, BLUM, and Lisson Gallery, is on view from June through October 2024. Jackson’s sculptures are the first artworks installed in the Western Rail Yards since 2019. The Interim Walkway in the Western Rail Yards, the section located between 30th and 34th Streets, west of 11th Avenue, offers visitors a glimpse of what the High Line was like before it was transformed into the park it is today: a self-seeded landscape along a simple path, with expansive views of the Hudson River and the Empire State Building. In this setting, a rare find in contemporary New York City, Jackson’s sculptures complement the wild natural life that grows on the tail end of the historic wrought iron structure.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Oliver Lee Jackson (b. 1935, St. Louis, Missouri) lives and works in Oakland, California. Jackson has held solo exhibitions in numerous institutions including: St. Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri (2021); di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art, Napa, California (2021); National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC (2019); San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose, California (2017); Contemporary Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri (2012); Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts (2002); Fresno Art Museum, Fresno California (2000); Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California (1993); Newport Harbor Art Museum, Newport Beach, California (1993); University of California, Berkeley Art Museum (1983); Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington (1982); among many others, as well as numerous group exhibitions.

Sculptures by Jackson are in the permanent collections of the Detroit Institute of the Arts, Detroit, Michigan; Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, California; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, California; and Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut. His artworks are also represented in the permanent collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York; Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York; National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, Louisiana; Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon; Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California; Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, and many more. Jackson was the recipient of the 2023–24 Lee Krasner Award for lifetime achievement from the Pollock Krasner Foundation.

ABOUT HIGH LINE ART

Founded in 2009, High Line Art commissions and produces a wide array of artworks on the High Line, including site-specific commissions, exhibitions, performances, video programs, and a series of billboard interventions. Led by Cecilia Alemani, the Donald R. Mullen, Jr. Director & Chief Curator of High Line Art, and presented by the High Line, the art program invites artists to think of creative ways to engage with the unique architecture, history, and design of the park, and to foster a productive dialogue with the surrounding neighborhood and urban landscape.

For further information on High Line Art, please visit thehighline.org/art.

ABOUT THE HIGH LINE

The High Line is both a nonprofit organization and a public park on the West Side of Manhattan. Through our work with communities on and off the High Line, we’re devoted to reimagining public spaces to create connected, healthy neighborhoods and cities.

Built on a historic, elevated rail line, the High Line was always intended to be more than a park. You can walk through the gardens, view art, experience a performance, enjoy food or beverage, or connect with friends and neighbors—all while enjoying a unique perspective of New York City.

Nearly 100% of our annual budget comes through donations. The High Line is owned by the City of New York and we operate under a license agreement with NYC Parks.

For more information, visit thehighline.org and follow us on Facebook, X, Instagram.

SUPPORT

Lead support for High Line Art comes from Amanda and Don Mullen. Major support is provided by Shelley Fox Aarons and Philip E. Aarons, The Brown Foundation, Inc. of Houston, and Charina Endowment Fund.

High Line Art is supported, in part, with public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the New York City Council, under the leadership of Speaker Adrienne Adams.

Special thanks to Andrew Kreps Gallery, BLUM, and Lisson Gallery.

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