JACOB FEIGE

Jacob Feige’s paintings, including free-standing works, explore the tension between anonymity and individuality in the 21st century, reinterpreting the notion of lost identity in an era shaped by technology. Inspired by Byzantine icons and modernist figurative paintings, Feige incorporates geometric elements into each portrait, creating figures that feel both familiar and uncanny, echoing the complexities of identity in contemporary society.

Vermilion Monuments is a series of double-sided, free-standing paintings ranging in scale from small to large. On one side, Feige paints with vermilion red, a reference to the cover of J.G. Ballard’s science fiction short story collection Vermilion Sands. Both sides feature the same schematic portrait, an anonymous figure depicted from both a frontal and side view. On the reverse side, precise cut-outs are mounted over two central portraits, obscured by layers of vibrant color that enhance depth and create a dynamic interplay of dimension.

The Leaf People series have their modern parallels, especially in the universalized figures of Kazimir Malevich, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, and Oskar Schlemmer. These artists explored the collective, often faceless figure in response to industrialized society, a concept that feels equally relevant in today’s digital culture, where algorithms amplify exaggerated, hyper-expressive portraits yet drive increasingly mechanical behavior. 

The Lovers series, seeks to provoke contemplation, inviting audiences to ponder questions about the ever-changing tendencies of relationships and companionship, without offering easy answers. The portrait layer sits atop a canvas painted with leaf tracings, each an individual, particular leaf. The portraits are distant strangers, but the leaves are varied and knowable. Color in the paintings is synthetic, distinct from skin tones and foliage in a space apart from nature.

JACOB FEIGE received a BHA (Bachelor of Humanities and Art) from Carnegie Mellon University and an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2005. His work has been exhibited at Untitled Art ‘24, Miami, FL; Stockton University Art Gallery, Galloway, NJ; Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia, PA; RISD, Providence, RI; Orlando Museum of Art, Orlando, FL; among other venues. In 2024, he was an artist-in-residence at Alfred University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany, and in 2018 at the Princeton Cyprus Expedition, Polis Chrysochous, Cyprus. He was awarded a New Jersey Council on the Arts Individual Artist Fellowship in 2022. His work has been featured in Artforum, Frieze, The New Yorker, Art in America, and Title Magazine, among others.