Superstar Painter Joseph Yaeger Joins Modern Art

You may find Joseph Yaeger celebrating tonight at St JOHN, his favourite London restaurant, after the announcement that the Montana-born painter has joined Stuart Shave’s London gallery.

Modern Art is fast becoming one of the leading galleries in the capital, with Yaeger the latest in a run of outstanding painters, including Justin Caguiat, Andrew Cranston, and Mohammed Sami, the gallery has taken on in recent years.

Ocula Director Rory Mitchell was first introduced to Yaeger’s work in After Image (2020), a group exhibition at Mamoth in London curated by Robert Spragg.

Since then, his paintings of bulging gesso, swathes of watercolour, and discerningly selected subject matter have been a source of intrigue, joy, and comfort when encountered at exhibitions and art fairs, including the three small paintings we saw at Frieze Seoul.

In 2022, Ocula contributor Will Hine visited Yaeger’s studio in East London to discuss his approach to unearthing new subject matter, depicting heightened emotional states, and using watercolour on gesso-primed linen to guide his way of seeing.

‘I think there is a kind of method acting involved when I paint,’ Yaeger explained. ‘I probably do manipulate my own face and try to get into what emotional state the people in the paintings are experiencing and heighten it as much as possible to get that overture, good-cry feeling, which is indistinguishable from happiness or sadness.’

Gesso ‘incidents’ are the foundation of Yaeger’s canvases, to which he applies thin washes of watercolour that seep into every groove and crevice. The artist will spray water onto the drying gesso from a height in a looping motion that permeates the surface creating crater-like forms.

The sides of Yaeger’s canvases are masterpieces in themselves, often bulging with gesso or the remnants of a past painting which—like many Old Master paintings—have been replaced with bigger and brighter ideas.

Modern Art’s announcement follows a busy run for the London-based artist who has received a great deal of attention since receiving his MA in painting from London’s Royal College of Art in 2019.

Last year Yaeger had knock-out shows in London, at both The Perimeter and the East London gallery Project Native Informant. A solo exhibition at Modern Art is yet to be announced.

Main image: Joseph Yaeger, studio view. Photo: © William Waterworth.