Death Doula

They’re ready, and they want you here. No psychic powers are necessary. No previous experience required. They’ve already done the work. They’ve peeled back the layers and want to show you their all too ripe and sugary past. 

But let us be clear, this is not about the grotesque. 

It will be sweet, we promise. She’ll show you that place where she feels the universe expanding in her body, that place where he found room for more pie, where all of those temporary surgeries failed, and all the rainbow-y colors in-between. This is a party for bodies on the verge of failure, a lucid dream celebration for becoming the other. It’s praise for the transition. Some will burst, some will deflate, and some disintegrate. Here they are, all waiting for you. We choose you to be their doula. 

La Luz De Jesus Gallery is pleased to present Death Doula, a group exhibition featuring the works of Rebecca Morgan, Gregory Jacobsen, Serge Serum, and Parker Steven Jackson. Death Doula, by definition, refers to a midwife guide for a dying person and their caretakers. In this exhibition, the paintings request the viewer to shepherd the subjects with dignity into the afterlife. 

Rebecca Morgan was born in central Pennsylvania and exhibits with Asya Geisberg Gallery in New York. She works in painting, drawing, and ceramics that subvert stereotypes of Appalachia. Imbued with folk tradition and a sly sense of humor, her work peels apart the simultaneous reverence and disgust for rural people. 

Chicago artist Gregory Jacobsen paints figures that obsess on the little bits- a little flab hanging over a waistband, ill-fitting shoes, prominent noses, overbites, and blemishes. The work exaggerates perceived imperfections while also revealing their beauty. The artist’s characters are vulnerable yet heroic.

Serge Serum is a self-taught Los Angeles-based artist who does not scare easily when it comes to the human psyche’s complexities. Growing up in rough neighborhoods with high gang violence allowed him to take an interest in graffiti, which later transitioned to fine art.

Parker Steven Jackson lives and works in Los Angeles. His surrealist and highly rendered paintings are inspired by horror and sci-fi genres combined with lucid dream imagery and his own psyche.