LUCERNE.- The Museum of Art Lucerne has organized Matthew Day Jackson’s first European solo exhibition in collaboration with the Museo d’Arte Moderna in Bologna and the Gemeentemuseum in Den Haag. Jackson (American, born 1974) recently celebrated major successes with his exhibitions in the USA and London, which resulted in his work being represented in major public and private collections world-wide.

Jackson is interested in human existence and he distinguished himself with profound research on anthropology and the history of Western civilization. Highly complex and deeply ambivalent areas of knowledge especially attract his attention, such as nuclear technology and space travel. Correspondingly, his work traces the fine line that divides myth and reality, progress and destruction, technology and religion. In an insightful and virtuoso manner, Jackson employs the mechanisms of the manifold media landscape shaping our current society. But throughout everything, his work is grounded in the artist’s person and existence.

The artist developed the exhibition in close collaboration with the Fine Art Museum Lucerne. Rainbow colors transform the museum’s normally neutral flight of rooms in the Lucerne Culture and Congress Center (KKL) built by Jean Nouvel. The exhibition centers on his video film ‘In Search of...’ that is screening in a living room designed by the international furniture chain IKEA. ‘In Search of...’ is Jackson’s main work-in-progress: An amusing paraphrase of the famous American TV-documentary series moderated by Leonard Nimoy aka Dr. Spock, it also presents all the artist’s central themes. Jackson declares it his intention to “understand the society and culture in which I live.” Reason and intuition combined with pleasure and humor saturate his approach in equal degrees and make the encounter with his work both challenging and entertaining.

Curated by Peter Fischer