“Last Artist Standing” has finally arrived! I’m so honored to be included in this collection of essays by artists over 50, edited by @sharonlouden . The book is available from Univ of Chicago Press (press.uchicago.edu) and elsewhere. I’m off to make a big cup of coffee and see what all these artists have to say!
#sharonlouden #jaqchartier #lastartiststanding
My work was included in a fabulous group exhibition in Denmark at the Esbjerg KunstMuseum. “Wunderkammer3” was the last exhibition in @esbjergkunstmuseum award-winning research and exhibition project “Wunderkammer”. Link in bio. #esbjergkunstmuseum
Life’s big questions form the basis of Wunderkammer 3: Who are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going from here? The exhibition was organized in cooperation with DNA researchers who work with the extraction of knowledge from life’s invisible, but most fundamental building blocks; but how is this knowledge, procured through their investigations, made relevant? How can we sense and understand those aspects of reality that are imperceptible? By linking the research results with the most recent art works, Wunderkammer 3 made such questions present through a (new) visual form.
Participating artists included: Emilie Alstrup, Suzanne Anker, Ejler Bille, Jaq Chartier, Gina Czarnecki (in collaboration with Professor John Hunt), Stine Deja, Heather Dewey-Hagborg, Max Ernst, Thomas Feuerstein, Wilhelm Freddie, Jørgen Hansen, Thorbjørn Lausten, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Frodo Mikkelsen, Richard Mortensen, Christian Skeel, Morten Skriver, Morten Søndergaard, Svend Wiig Hansen. The exhibition also includes a special temporary collaboration with Mark Dion.
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#esbjergkunstmuseum
William Baczek Fine Arts’ exhibitions move fluidly between abstraction and realism, reflecting a broad view of what contemporary painting and sculpture can be. Rather than focusing on a single style or movement, the program emphasizes artists whose work demonstrates exceptional skill, thoughtful composition, and a deep engagement with their materials. The result is a dynamic dialogue—where gestural abstraction can sit alongside meticulous representational work, and where diverse approaches reveal a shared dedication to the craft of creating excellent art. What unites the gallery’s program is not a stylistic agenda but a commitment to highly executed, well-crafted art.
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About her paintings Jaq Chartier says: I love collecting intriguing images from chromatography and DNA gel electrophoresis, as well as things seen under the microscope and under the sea. Science keeps me inspired by the wondrous. And like a scientist I call my paintings tests because I’m following real questions and running real experiments. I set the stage for materials to interact and reveal hidden chemistries, and the final paintings are the results. I use a stripped-down aesthetic with lush color to suggest an unseen world—beautiful but also bizarre, inflamed, suggestive of energies beneath the surface. Instead of paint, I use my own custom formulas of deeply saturated inks, stains and dyes. Such colors can do things paint can’t do – bleed, shift, and migrate through other layers of paint, or change color, or even completely disappear.
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William Baczek Fine Arts’ 30 Anniversary Exhibition is open for viewing through June 6, 2026.
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Shown: Jaq Chartier, Royal Blue, A vs B, acrylic, inks, dyes, stains, spray paint on wood panel, 8 x 10”, 20.3 x 25.4 cm.
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#artgallery
#abstractart
#groupshop
#dna
#acrylicpainting
#tinysuntest collaboration with @_jack_johnston_ 💕 My SunTest paintings are designed with light sensitive colors so they’ll change over time with exposure. The #TinySunTests are just a bit over 2”. If you take one home, you’re invited to collaborate with me on the process of exposing the painting (instructions included). They become more dynamic as the colors change, so don’t be fooled by their initial appearance.
@jrinehartgallery has available Tiny SunTests on their website for sale, or DM me.
Thank you to Jack for these images, and all the other collaborators with work in progress. Keep it going & keep the images coming! 🌞
Why artists need time to play. These cubes were an experiment that split off in two directions - paintings, and prints on metal. The way the inks dried under the little cubes caught my eye and I needed to see them bigger - ending up at 30x their original size printed with dye sublimation on shaped aluminum panels. I’ve included both types of “cube” artworks in my current Portland show @elizabethleachgallery , on view thru Jan 10.
#testing
#jaqchartier
#elizabethleachgallery
#mutablepaintings
These small paintings are also available - Mutable Paintings, Dec 4 - Jan 10 @elizabethleachgallery ✨ I’ll be there for the holiday party on Dec 11, please drop by!
Mutable Paintings, Jaq Chartier
📍 Elizabeth Leach Gallery, 417 NW 9th Ave., Portland
🗓️ Dec 5, 2025 - Jan 10, 2026
✨Opening reception First Thursday, Dec 4, 5:30 - 7:30 pm
⏳ Hours: Tues-Sat, 10:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.
🆓 to the public
Mutable Paintings, is an exhibition of new work by Jaq Chartier, an extension of the artist’s Testing series. Known for her rigorous, experimental approach to materials and process, Chartier’s latest body of work builds on her decades-long investigation into the behavior of colors as they interact with light across time.
Confronted with the discontinuation of a key material used in her previous works led the artist to reimagine her approach, pushing her to experiment with new processes and revisit previous self-imposed rules. The necessity of using novel materials created new possibilities for exploration, presenting the artist with the opportunity for further evolution of her practice.
Mutable Paintings reflects this renewed sense of experimentation in which chance, variation, and the artist’s gestures all play an equal role in the creation of the work. Like a director setting the stage for actors, the materials in Chartier’s studio, including paint, dye, inks and stains, become characters of their own, leading to surprising and unanticipated interactions and “interesting mistakes.”
The works in Mutable Paintings feature cube-like forms and shifting marks that seem to interact as though they are tiny worlds in motion. Each mark and movement is informed not only by the artist’s gesture, but also by the materials’ own unpredictable responses. This new work invites viewers to consider impermanence, adaptation, and transformation, both within the artwork and beyond.
#JaqChartier #ElizabethLeachGallery #artandaboutpdx
