2023 - Re Orient Series

A Retake On Oriental East Asian-Style Art Expressed In Abstract Form

For Re Orient, Markus Jentes’ 6th solo exhibit to date, a study in development and fruition emerges. It is an arresting departure from previous work. The melded horizons and teasing plays of light we had first witnessed have now moved on. Instead Markus has allowed a single literal brush to take over, choosing its own strokes like a divining rod, a mythical counterbalance against once-beloved geometry and precision.

The results are felt in new organic forms featuring colorful aquatic bends, cloud-like shapes and Koi fish patterns. Everything seems to congeal as a lucid paean to Chinese and Southeast Asian art.

Re Orient, as a testament to Markus’ own backstory, exposes the heart of evolution drawing upon a thorough if not painful re-examination of the world and of the self. In his own progression, Markus shares the introspection many of us have experienced in the wake of the pandemic and all its attendant upheavals. This period defines a hardening threshold that looks back at dramatic shifts in career, location, and family. Happily, Re Orient also provides a glimpse into enlightenment through a return to nature, a recurrent artistic theme that reinvents itself as a putative living force and which clearly, has not lost relevance or currency.

Written by: Gerrard Fabie