Jonathan Seliger
Jonathan Seliger is a hyper-realist and conceptual sculptor who has exhibited extensively across the United States. His works remain in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art, The Jewish Museum in New York, The Brooklyn Museum of Art, The Denver Art Museum, The New York Public Library, and the Jane Vorhees Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey. Jonathan has been published in the New York Times on multiple occasions and recent solo exhibitions include galleries such as Tasende Gallery in La Jolla, California and McClain Gallery in Houston, Texas.
For the purposes of the article we will be focusing on Jonathan’s bronze sculptures. Bronze remains an expensive and laborious medium typically reserved for monuments or works of art held in high regard. Because Jonathan depicts replicas of items in bronze which represent luxury, convenience, or urban iconography, he creates a statement about the intrinsic value of these popular objects. Some of his most well known works contain his series of designer shopping bags. Without the audience knowing the works were made out of bronze, one would be forgiven to actually believe these are real shopping bags by lead designers left on a pedestal in a gallery.Â
The permanent and grand qualities of these bronze works idealizes icons of comfort to a higher status and purpose. Without the replication of bronze these are items which could be regarded as disposable after use, such as a Gucci bag or Chinese takeout containers. Other replications, such as the depiction of a New York Police Department (NYPD) car door, portray familiar urban scenery elevated to the status of permanence through bronze. In a sense, Jonathan reconstructs the status of value to become accessible in real space. His accurate hyper-realistic depiction of these various objects does not personalize or make individualistic commentary on the subjects but rather portray them for their actual, intrinsic presence.Â
Charms (pictured above) is a replica of a Tiffany & Co designer shopping bag presented in bronze, finished off with automotive enamel and wax, and containing chrome-plated grounding cable for the handle. Jonathan creates a realistic replication of plastic, a substance known to be disposable, with the permanence of bronze and the appeal of chrome steel cables to represent what would otherwise be flimsy cardboard handles on an actual shopping bag. The piece makes a statement about consumerism, not in a critical sense, but communicating to the audience an actual tangible essence of personal value regarded by the masses.Â
Jonathan Seliger takes what would otherwise be disregarded commercial and urban objects and elevates them into a higher form of art. The work cannot be described as cynical because they are replications rather than interpretations, but instead are a mirror reflection of the public’s taste in worth and merit. With a concept based in material, the audience contemplates the very basis of the meaning and purpose of value. There remains collective and personal value, in the works, Jonathan shows no distinction between the two as he creates shrines to contemporary commercial and familiar entities.
