JESSE RENO

The innate beauty of Reno’s engaging, many-layered painting invites the viewer into the artist’s complex personal mythology, which seeks to explore the increasing disconnect between humanity and nature. Each work can be read as a segment of a continuing allegory concerning humankind’s struggle to find our rightful place in the natural scheme of things. Terming people “the most domesticated of animals”, Reno works to recall the wild origins of the human soul and does so convincingly.

It follows that anthropomorphism figures heavily in Reno’s work – human as snakes, birds, and deer – evoking feelings of compassion and idealized innocence that play against recurring themes of angst and entrapment. These visual symbols and the occasional use of typography are evocative of cave art and petroglyphs, and much like the visual traces left by prehistoric societies, these works function not as ends in themselves, but rather as portals into an ineffable understanding of human existence. Inspired as he is by aboriginal and prehistoric societies, Reno terms his art neo-primitivism, a term which captures both the roots of his practice and his aspirations for renewal.

Entirely self-taught, Reno decided early in his career to forego formal training, opting to develop his individualistic style through a prolific and exuberant output of creation. His materials range from acrylic paint and oil pastels to colored pencils laid primarily over wood panel and canvas. He generally works on five to ten canvases at once, apportioning equal time to each, in the interest of allowing the thematic content to germinate organically. Open as the artist is to the unfolding of subconscious content, his paintings emerge as pieces of a dreamlike mythic narrative.

Reno’s work serves as a festive call for redemption; there may be monsters secreted in the confines of his primitive schemes, but it soon becomes clear that these monsters are reflections of the human ego grown out of control and in disproportion with nature. In assimilating the message that individuals have the power to change for the better, the viewer understands that Reno, beyond being and artist, is able to assume the role of contemporary shaman – accessing totemic symbols for the purpose of restoring equilibrium between human beings and the environment – reminding us that the Earth is, in fact, our natural habitat.