New art at The Kube

A little press coverage from the Coast Reporter for the exhibition at The Kube in Gibsons.

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INTERVIEW FOR STOCKYARDS GALLERY

In one paragraph, who are you?

My name is Jean Paul Langlois. I am an artist of Metis descent but I have almost no connections to my culture or heritage. I grew up on Vancouver Island but currently live and paint in East Vancouver. I'm also sometimes known as DJPLAN. Although I rarely play music in public these days I still collect records and go out to shows and parties as much as possible. I’m actually a very private and sensitive person and value my solitude but some  people only know my public persona which can be a bit loud and caustic….
 

How did you become an artist ?

I’ve been drawing as long as I can remember and started painting watercolours when I was a young teen. Early on I was inspired by Mad and Heavy Metal Magazine. I loved Moebius and Sergio Argones. The cheesy sword and sorcery oil paintings of Frank Frazetta.

When I was a teen my Mom, bless her heart, thought she was giving me a great art education by buying these dusty old coffee table books at garage sales. A lot of Cezanne, Gaugin and Impressionists. Really boring Canadiana: Lawren Harris or Robert Bateman. I thought these were the only painters in the world. There were no real art galleries to visit growing up on Vancouver Island. West Coast watercolour landscapes at tourist shops were what I grew up on….

So obviously Art History at College was a revelation. Learning about all the major movements in the 20th century blew my mind. And seeing artists like Francis Bacon or Mark Rothko for the first time was life altering. I really connected with Eric Fischl and was influenced by his brush style and subject matter. In art school I felt shock value was important, so attempting to deal with themes like sexual violence and drug abuse (in the most ham handed and inarticulate ways) got me kicked out. Of not one, but two art schools on Vancouver Island.

These days some of the artists who have the most direct influence on my practice include Richard Prince. His appropriation and reinvention of cowboy images speak to me but I love his humor and ‘don’t give a fuck’ attitude. His concepts are clever but he’s also an excellent painter and hard worker.

I’m obsessed with Henry Darger, the outsider artist who secretly wrote the longest novel in history and illustrated most of it using a completely innovative style of appropriation. Because of a lack of confidence in his ability to draw freehand he would trace and collage. Taking images from comics, colouring books and catalogues to create fantastical landscapes and portraits of beauty and horror. His story is quite moving. His work is lovely but disturbing. I find the technique of combining opposing elements from pop culture to create alternative narratives a useful tool. Of course he never considered what he was doing, he just did what he had to…

I love the photography of Edward Curtis. The posed portraits or documentation shots of indigenous peoples in N. America at the end of an era…some of it is exploititive and staged for shock value but most of it is dignified and honest. Its moving to see an image of a Blackfoot on a horse and think that's how my ancestor lived…I think you can see his influence in my Fake Indians and Planet of the Apes portraits.