15 NOVEMBER 2019 – 14 MARCH 2020

THE POOL NYC is very proud to present Nocturnes, which showcases the work of the American artist Patrick Jacobs.  We have followed Jacobs’ career with great enthusiasm over the past ten years, from our first studio visit with him in his apartment overlooking Prospect Park in Brooklyn, NYC (a source of inspiration for many of his micro worlds) to his monochromatic landscapes and large-scale installations of more recent years. We have now arrived at the Nocturnes.  We are very excited to present his first solo exhibition in Italy.

Nature has always figured prominently in Jacobs’ work. In his earliest dioramas, he explored the ambiguous relationship humans have with the environment – a sense of wonder and astonishment, but also an underlying unease.  His depictions of weeds and funguses, for example, reveal much about our cultural attitudes towards the natural world. His series of works of fairy rings draw on ancient legends in which spirits danced in circles causing mushrooms to spring up.  Here, he conjures up the supernatural and, with it, a sense of fear and magic.

In Nocturnes, sensuality takes center stage as never before.  Lush, fertile, and luxuriant flora allude to surreal and dreamy places.  In the words of Shakespeare, Jacobs “uses the night as a cloak” through which he can enjoy the pleasures of a conspiratorial nature.  And, like Dorian Gray, he escapes into the night to indulge his innermost desires, sometimes frightened by what he sees and simultaneously overwhelmed by irrepressible desires. We are faced with perturbing, poetic and seductive landscapes.