Jacob Leigh pedrana has, in a perfect flurry of oil and canvas and inspiration, transmogrified from blue-collar plasterer to in-demand artist whose joyously coloured rodeo-themed works festooned with metaphorical text are the latest must-have for Australia’s culturally well-heeled set.
Jacob shares a passion with surfing and currently works out of his home studio on Sydney’s northern beaches.
Jacob grew up in Noosa Heads queensland and draws inspiration from his childhood . Infusing bold, washed out fluorescent pigments, Jacob takes to the surface in an expressionistic style .
Jake draws inspiration from artists such as Julian Schnabel, Ben Quilty and Jean Michel Basquiat .
If ever an artist was a signifier of the times, surely it would be Jake Pedrana. And his colourful, flamboyant works with throw away lines taken from things as diverse as movies to Marlboro cigarettes hint at something deeper and more complex. The neo-punk cowboys in macho poses while wearing chaps/chapstik? - the rouged cheeks and the lip glossed mouths sit perfectly well in our gender fluid times. Jakes work isn’t akin to a religious experience, but what it does is challenge what we know and like about art. It’s prettyin a dirty way. With a high five to the ghost of Basquiat and a nod to Lister’s earlier work, Jake has rewritten the visual vernacular of neo-expressionism in Australian art. It’s exciting, it’s new and it’s being made in Bondi – the centre of the universe (according to most of those who live there). It’s akin tothe caged music scene in The Blues Brothers – Jake at the helm like his namesake (Belushi) while glasses fly and mayhem falls around him. Born in Noosa, residing in Northern beaches and living the great Australian dream, Jake is a renaissance man doing his best to maintain that maverickspirit (once coined larrikin) which is sorely missed in contemporary Australia. His trajectory only has one direction, and I’m just glad to say I knew him when…
Mitchell English (Director, Arcadia Street Gallery)
Rodeo grit. Surf-soaked colour. Art that hits hard.