Snake Jagger's Art Gallery

I have been drawing and painting since I was six years of age. Without any formal training, I guess you can say I am a self taught artist. And though I dabbled in art throughout my life, I did not get serious about it until I was about 25 or so. I paint the desert landscapes I live in.

 

Information About Snake Jagger

Snake Jagger is intoxicated with the desert. He captures his ecstatic joy in landscapes that border on the hyper-real.
People have called his paintings surrealistic because they present a world that seems to transcend ordinary reality.

Born in Los Angeles in 1955, Jagger spent much of his time in the Palm Springs area where his father was employed by
Frank Sinatra. The Southern California outdoor life-style and the glamour of the entertainment world helped shape the
artist's perspective. He managed to combine his dual goals of living close to the land and entertaining people in his
ideal career as an artist.

Jaggers paintings are a blend of fact and fantasy. He begins with what he knows best - the California Desert - and
transforms that raw material into novel images that amaze and delight. His meticulous technique details every rock and
pebble, cactus thorn and palm frond, giving it an intense presence. This hyper-realism makes the images seem
uncanny, too perfect to be real.

But Jagger's art is not simply descriptive. He takes great liberties with his images. Consequently, you cannot take his
paintings too seriously. His mischievous imagination leads him too add unexpected details that provide a humorous
commentary on life in the desert. In one painting, a water faucet appears in the middle of an uninhabited landscape.
Through sleight -of-hand, Jagger stops the viewer in his tracks and invites him to take a second look.

Another favourite conceit is his special use of frames and shaped canvases. Some paintings are set in picture frames
that double as window frames. It is as if you are looking through a window at a distant vista. In other paintings, Snake
paints various borders around the edge of his compositions, which makes his paintings seem theatrical.

Jagger's interest in order began as a young child. Today he paints as an orderly place, as if each object has been
carefully placed by a master gardener. His landscapes are too pristine, tpp perfect. But that is their appeal. For Jagger,
the desert offers escape. His paintings allow us to share his sense of adventure.

Michael Zakian
Director
Frederick R. Weisman Museum Of Art
Pepperdine University
Malibu, California
Snake Jagger

Exhibitions
1991 One man show - Gallery Without Walls, Palm Springs, California
1991 "Fresh Paint, Hot Print" benefit for Shelter From the Storm, Ritz Carlton,
Rancho Mirage, California
1992 Group Show "Seen and Unseen". Eastern New Mexico University, Portales, New Mexico
1992 Group Show "Giving Thanks to Mother Earth..." Spirit Echos Gallery, Austin Texas
1992 12th Annual Faber Birren Color Award Show, Stamford, Connecticut
1995 "East Meets West: Old and New" The Delaplaine Visual Arts Center, Frederick Maryland
1995 Group Shows, Art 95' "Top 70" Exhibition, Art 54 Gallery, Soho, New York City
1995 15th Annual Faber Birren Color Award Show, Stamford, Connecticut
1995 Group Show, 8th Annual Northern National Art Competition, Rhinelander, Wisconsin
1995 Group Show, 16th Annual Summer Art' 95, Steamboat Springs, Colorado
1996 One Man Show, Benefit for ARTEACH, Indian Wells, California
1996 Group Show, Miles Avenue Gallery, Indio, California
1996 Group Show, Space Art, Volcano Art Center, Hawaii
1996 "Snake Jagger" One Man Show, Mt. San Jacinto College, San Jacinto, California