Jessica Stockholder

Born in Seattle, 1959; lives and works in Chicago

Cities are structured and ordered by geometry and color. They are filled with functional and purposeful markers — lines, shapes, and textures — that direct our movements and actions. When we thought about inviting an artist to address the expected visual framework of the downtown area of Los Altos (which forms a triangle), Jessica Stockholder immediately came to mind. Since the 1980s she has pushed the boundaries of painting and sculpture through works in the studio and site-specific installations. Color, often bold and vibrant, is the driving element in her work — it spills, it connects, it bisects, and it saturates, altering the physical and emotional significance of interior and outdoor locations.

Cross Hatch visually reconfigures the intersection of Fourth and State Streets. On top of the expected lines that mark the meeting of the two streets and delineate the pedestrian crossing Stockholder has overlaid painted geometric forms that are fractured and split. These bright, sharp, angular shapes pour onto and cling to the concrete sidewalk, the asphalt, the stone pavers, and a nearby parking lot, calling attention to their varying textures. Metal bleachers offer a heightened view of the patterned surface and a place to sit and watch pedestrians and cars as they add to the composition. Stockholder explains, “Drawings are made on the road all the time — inadvertently with oil from cars and trucks, and with paint laid down by road maintenance crews.” Eventually, the vibrant colors of Cross Hatch will fade, marked up by tires, scuffed by shoes, dripped on by cars and passersby, and weathered by the elements, recording, through these markers of time, the everyday performances that took place here.

Jenny Gheith
Assistant Curator of Painting and Sculpture

Interview